Number of Companies in Prison's Yellow Ribbon Pool of Employer Partners

Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how many companies are there currently in Yellow Ribbon Singapore's pool of employer partners; (b) of the more than 2,000 ex-inmates placed into jobs by Yellow Ribbon Singapore, whether there is data being collected on their job retention rate; (c) if so, what is the average length of stay of employment; and (d) what is the rate of recidivism amongst these candidates placed in jobs by Yellow Ribbon Singapore.

As of March 2021, there were 5,974 employers registered with Yellow Ribbon Singapore, or YRSG, to offer employment opportunities to ex-offenders.

YRSG tracks the job retention rate of ex-offenders who are provided with job retention support, or JRS. Ex-offenders under JRS are assigned a career coach for up to 12 months after release. The career coach works closely with the ex-offenders to provide relevant support, such as guiding them on how to manage job demands and setting behavioural goals.

The most recent available recidivism rate data is for the 2018 release cohort. YRSG provided JRS to about 1,500 ex-offenders in that cohort and tracked their employment status for one year. YRSG found that 66% had remained employed for six months or more. The two-year recidivism rate of ex-offenders in this 2018 cohort who were on JRS was 20.1%. This was lower than the recidivism rate of 22.7% for ex-offenders in the same cohort who did not receive JRS.