1st Day of sentence

After you are sentenced by the judge, you can make a request to serve your prison term at a later date if you have valid reasons to do so. If not, your legs and hands will be cuffed and you will be led to a detention centre, which is located at the basements of the Supreme Court and State Court buildings respectively.

You have to surrender all of your belongings to the officers at the detention centre. All items will be sealed and registered. ST Logistics is the company contracted by the prisons to do this. You are advised to bring as little things as possible, except for some books which you can read during your time inside the prison. Your hands and feet will be cuffed.

You will be strip searched and given a pair of t-shirt and shorts to wear while you wait in a cell for a prison van to pick you up to to go Changi Prison. Food will be provided to you if you are in the holding cell during breakfast, lunch or dinner time.

You can make phone calls during your period in detention if you wish. 

During the registration process at the detention centre, you will be asked a series of questions, including what local religious/cultural festivals you celebrate, your diet and your sexuality. If you have any food allergies or medical conditions, it is important that you declare them.

 At about 6pm, the prison van will pick you up with all the other inmates. You will walk to the van in your hand and leg cuffs while escorted by officers. The van will lead you to Changi Prison, which is divided into Cluster A, Cluster B, within which there are different Housing Units (HUs). 

When you arrive at Changi prison, you will sniffed by a dog for contraband substances, and once again be subjected to a strip search and a series of questions about your health, dietary preferences and your sexuality. For the strip search, you will have to remove all your clothes, squat down, turn around, lift your legs up, and open your mouth and stick out your tongue.

You will also undergo an interview by the doctor. In the subsequent days, you will undergo an X-Ray and a blood test and have your fingerprints and photographs taken. If you have tattoos on your body, photos of them will be taken. You will also be required to sign an undertaking that you will not join any gangs while in prison, or participate in gang activities.

You will gather with all the other new inmates, sit on the floor and given a briefing. You will be issued a blue, plastic wrist tag which you'll wear around your wrist throughout your sentence. This tag has your name and inmate number. You will sign a document indicating your earliest date of release (EDR) and your latest date of release (LDR). This information will be on your cell docket (a piece of paper) which is displayed outside your designated cell.

Once you are registered, you will be given a medium-sized white container which contains a few sets of t shirts and shorts, a tooth paste, tooth brush, toilet paper, a pair of slippers, soap bar, a small towel the size of a 'good morning' face towel, a straw mat, a plastic mug and a plastic spoon. You will then commence your sentence. 

As part of the prison's screening for Covid-19, all inmates are swabbed upon entry and on the 7th day of your sentence. 

Upon completing their sentences, inmates are released usually between 10 am and 12 pm. There is a one third discount of your sentence (known as earliest date of release (EDR) on your cell docket) for sentences above 21 days. If the release day falls on a Sunday or a public holiday, the inmate will be released on the previous day, which is a Saturday or the eve of a public holiday. There is a small waiting area outside Changi Prison (near bus stop number 97049) for friends and family.

For sentences longer than 21 days, you may receive one third reduction of your sentence. Time served in prison while on remand will be set against your sentence. This means that if you were in remand for 1 month, any sentence will take this one month you served into consideration.