You can read the full report from the Committee of Inquiry with regards to Mas Selamat’s escape here.
My favourite parts:
A packet of 7 rolls of toilet paper was found on the ground adjacent to the external wall, which he could have used to break his fall when he descended.
Can you imagine a Singaporean version of Prison Break? It will just be this limping guy and some toilet paper climbing out of the toilet. For dramatic effect, we can show him braiding the toilet paper to form a Rapunzel-like rope, instead of just using the toilet paper to break his fall.
The weakness in the perimeter fencing where the outer and inner perimeter fences converged with an enclosed staircase and walkway leading to the Family Visitation Block was not detected.
TV is good because it teaches you that if you’re running a high security prison, you must install electrified fences. The fence with the hole here is probably the green colored type we used to climb over to escape lectures. If that’s the case then you might as well house Mas Selamat in SCGS, which is also very near Whitley Road. Also, I think the SCGS Discipline Mistress will do a much better job making sure he doesn’t use the toilet for too long.
No one was actively monitoring the two CCTV cameras covering the outer and inner perimeter fences at the rear of the Family Visitation Block.
I think the people who caught James Gomez on CCTV for not submitting some bullshit minority race form must be transferred to the ISD to watch terrorists.
WRDC Administration to develop a more structured framework to communicate risks posed by certain detainees to GC guards.
They have a list of 10 recommendations like the one above, and I don’t understand why they don’t make really obvious recommendations that can be carried out with immediate effect, such as these:
- Install electrified fences.
- Watch Prison Break for reference on how to run a prison.
- Put grills in the toilet window.
- Don’t leave extra toilet paper in the toilet.
Also, I think as a general rule-of-thumb, terrorists shouldn’t be housed next to school children. The detention center needs to be moved away from SCGS at the very least. However, it is probable that nobody housed inside is Really Dangerous; they were all arrested under the ISA, which means that no one in there has technically committed a crime yet apart from being a nuisance to the government. If that’s the case, then Whitley Road is perfectly fine for a detention center.
Otherwise, we can learn from Australia and build our detention centers away from everything. However, since we do not have the luxury of a desert landscape, we will have to house our terrorists in the foreign worker dorms next to the Choa Chu Kang cemetery.
More material:
The article in Straits Times with the Pulitzer-worthy photograph of the toilet and the video of Wong Kan Seng saying “toilet” a lot.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I second your pertinent recommendations, with added security feature to dispense three to five parts of toilet paper, depending on use, and with a GC guard deployed for such discernment.