Prison life in Singapore is not what you expect from other countries. I’m an ex-inmate, served 1 year sentence for drug offences. 6 months behind bars and 6 months tagged (House arrest).
It’s boring. You get only a mat to sleep, 3 sets of plain white shirt and shorts, a small towel, a roll of toilet paper, 2 blankets, a plastic mug, a plastic spoon, a small tub to contain water, a bar of soap with its container, a short blue toothbrush with gel toothpaste, a small pen and a container to fit everything in.
Each cell fits up to 8 people. The cells are just white walls with a grate type window and a squat toilet with a shower head fixed on the wall infront of it. No beds, TVs or any basic luxury here.
You sleep on the floor on a mat. ‘Pillows’ are self made by stuffing a blanket in a shirt and wrapping it up nicely. Muster checks are at 7am, 12pm and 6pm. Lights start to turn on everyday at 5am and switched off after every muster check is complete.
Meals (except for breakfast) are served in warmer plates. Colors of the plates depends on your diet needs. Green plates are your standard normal diet. Breakfast consists of 2 sandwiches (Butter/Jam) and a hot drink (Coffee/Tea) filled in your mug. Lunch consists of vegetarian food: Rice, tofu, beansprout etc.. Dinner is considered the heaviest meal: Rice, fishcake, chicken etc.. Fruits (Apple/Banana/Oranges) are included in every meal. Water is taken from the shower head to drink but water is shut off late in the afternoon and after 12am (Thank god for the tub). Food varieties changes every alternate days.
You spend 23 hours in your cell. At 2pm, they let you out of your cell to spend 1 hour to do activities. Every monday, wednesday and friday, you get to play sports. You get to watch movies every tuesdays and thursdays. 24 hours in cell every weekends. Every sunday, they’ll give you equipments to wash your cell and a shaver to shave your beards. You’ll also get a tablet everyday to send e-letters or play pre-installed games for 90 mins.
Depending on your conduct, you can go for classes in the afternoon.
There are also random cell checks every few weeks.
From my experience, it’s super boring but having other inmates makes life in prison a bit better. You can’t make poker cards or board games as it’s an offence but it’s whatever. Either be sane or insane. Song lyrics keeps us occupied along the way.
It’s not horrible. I’ve never heard a scene of “don’t drop the soap” but I’ve heard of arguments happening but not that frequent. The authorities here are very strict on such cases and will not tolerate such behaviour. I’ve seen people thrown into detention cell. Scooping of water from toilet bowls used to be a thing but that was wayyyy back.
Don’t commit any offence in Singapore. You’ll definitely regret it.