What to expect in Court and prison?

What to expect in court and prison

At the court, it is recommended you bring someone along so that he or she could inform your family about the sentence.
1. What must I wear in court?

You can wear t-shirt and jeans. However, please try not to wear slippers and short paints. It gives no respect to the judge although many say the sentence is still the same. Who knows?

2. How much is the fine and how much must I bring?
Normally for second time, it is somewhere $5K-S$10. If you are prepare to pay, pass to someone who is accompany you because you can’t pay yourself when after sentence.

3. What if I can’t pay?
The judge will let you know how long you will stay if you can’t effort to pay. For my case, $500 per day in prison. Hence a total of 10 days is added on top of my imprisonment sentence. That means 14days plus 10 days = 24 days. After deduction, total 17 days early release.

4. What happen after sentence?
You will be escorted into a in-house cell at basement where you will see many others join you.

5. Call I make a call?
Yes, you are given one chance to make a call for 5 mins. Please make full use of it to contact the important person. After that you would not allow to make a single call in the prison.

At the prison….

6. DisciplineIn prison, it demands 100% discipline and following instruction. Try not to act blur or re-act slowly to the instruction given by prison officer. Be attentive and alert to all instruction and follow closely. If not clear, ask.

7. Remain quite during fall in
You will have fall in everyday (except sat and Sunday). During fall in, tried to talk less and remain silence if possible. Tried not to be talkative or play jokes during fall in.

8. Shouting/rebuking from prison officer
It is common to hear shouting and rebuking in prison. If you behave well, you will not get it from officer.

9. Prison Number
On the 1st day you enter in Changi prison, you will be given a tag with your prison number. Remember your number because in prison, they call by numbers. Do not destroy the hand tag. In the tag, you will see either S or L. S = short sentence and L for long sentence.

10. Date of release
When you are sentence, many inmates will speculate when is the release date. On the 2nd day in prison, you will see a high rank officer and he will tell you the actual date of release. Here are some of the common questions:

11. Can I make a call?
No. But you can request the prison to left a message to your family during the interview. The prison will call behalf of you.

12. Will my family know where I stay and the date of release?
Yes! The prison will send letters to inform your family and also the visit if any.

13. Will there be deduction of my whole sentence date?
For sentence more than 2 weeks or 14 days, no deduction. But Yes to sentence more the 15 days. The prison will have deduction like ¾ based of your sentence. For example if you sentence for 3 weeks (21 days), you only be in prison for 15 days. This applies to months and long sentence.

12.1 Will there be extra deduction if I stay during public holidays?
No.

12.2 Will there be deduction if I performance is good in prison
No because the prison will automatic deduct for you for stay more then 14 days.

14. How many people in a cell? Can I choose? Will it be the same race or religions?
4 people in a cell. Cannot choose. For short sentence, you might stay together with others races and nationalities.

15. How big is the cell?
In Changi cluster B, the cell is good enough for 4 inmates, a toilet and some extra space to move around. But, not big. There is a small window where you could see the sunlight and sunset. But you can enjoy open space.

In Admiralty prison, you will stay with most foreigners and the cell is much bigger then contains 12 people. The good side is that you can see outside and enjoy open air concept. But the bad part is that too many inmates and mostly foreigners like India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and so forth. Mostly people who over stay in Singapore.

16. Where is the toilet and drinking water?
The toilet is inside the cell and it is squat type. The drinking water is on top of the toilet and you use it for shower and drinking together.

17. Is the toilet dirty?
It is 100% clean unless the last inmates did not wash. Because we together along the toilet, hence most toilet are keep very clean and no smell.

18. Is the water available 24 hrs? How many times I can bath?
In Changi, waters only comes certain timing like after your mean. Normally 1 hr before they close. You can bath as much as you wan when water is available.
In Admiralty, it is tap concept. So water is available for 24 hours. But you are not allowed to bath inside the cell. You have 1 bath per day outside where you and your inmates bath together.

19. Expect to get naked
In prison, be expected to be naked especially in Admiralty. In Admiralty, before you enter into your cell and go out your cell, you must take out everything and show to the prison officer. Please do take too long to undress yourself because the officer with rebuke you if you take your time.

20. Will there be daily activities?
For short sentence, normally you stay in Change for very short time because you will be move to Admiralty prison. Only long sentence inmates will stay in Changi and once they settle down, they will have go out to yard (which is indoor in Changi) for some activities like play basket ball, jogging, see news paper or some just talking. But you get to move to bigger space and enjoy more with more people.
In Admiralty, you will be confine for 1 weeks which means no yard.

21. Take turns to clean the cell
It is an agreement between the inmates to take turns and clean the cell. In Changi, we clean after each mean and each have its turn. In Admiralty, the cell is bigger normally takes 3 people to wash up per mean.

22. A personal box
In the cell, you will be given a personal container box where it contains 2 blankets, 1 short tooth brush, 1 tooth paste, 1 plastic spoon, 1 plastic mug, 1 small container, 1 tower, 1 soap., 1 soap box, and 1 sleeping mat.
Know that all this have to return upon your release or transfer. Any loss or damage, the prison will charge you and you will be sentence by the prison.

23. Food in prison
Sample, mainly steam food. Not fantastic but eatable. At a start we might not finish every meal. But you will get use to it after a while. If we can’t finish your food, you can share your part to your inmates who have bigger appetite.
The food served normally the same circle of dish every week, and fruits are served only at lunch. The fruits will be banana, apple and orange. Morning will be standard where we are served with 2 breads and a tea / coffee.

24. Master Check
Master check will be announced normally before meal and before sleep. Master check is where all the inmates must fall in with tuck in shirts and stand side by side. The Master which is the prison officer will check each cell. In Changi, there are about 4 Master Check. In Admiralty, there are 5 Master checks.

25. Report Sick
You must report sick at the evening during the Master Check. They will arrange you to see the next morning. If happens you felt sick in the morning, you might schedule the next day unless very serious.

26. Can I serve inside the prison like cookies?
Inmates who served inside the prison are known as cookies. For short sentence, the prison will not ask you to serve. Only for long sentence.

27. Should I give my contacts to my close inmates?
Advisable not to! Mainly because you don’t know their background. But whether to give is your decision. But please do not write your contacts or others inmate contacts on a paper or on your hand. You will definite get into trouble and properly get extra charge.

28. Can I shave and cut finger nails?
You are allowed to shave 3 times a week along with a nail cutter to cut your nails. All are given a person hand shaver with your prison number.

29. Do not listen too much and get influenced
In prison, you will meet all kinds of inmates. Some load shark case, some gangster, some thief, some traffic offence and so forth.
Be general and interact but don’t get too involved with crime stories because they sound so attractive.

30. Can my family member still visit me for short sentence?
Yes, if you stay more than 14 days. You are allowed 3 people to visit you. Although they say can bring books, but for short sentence normally they don’t approve especially religions book. I don’t know the visit day in Changi

31. You will get out soon
Last but not least, you will get out soon. Don’t create un-necessary problem. Be humble and not proud. Don’t boast how much your earned and so forth. That doesn’t means you need to lie.
My recommendation is to interact so to kill time. If you stay alone and be lonely ranger, your time will pass very slowly.