I REFER to the Committee of Inquiry report to construct a new detention centre facility in the Changi Prison.

I would like to suggest that instead of setting up the facility in the Changi Prison where it can be a potential breeding ground for terrorism and extremist ideology in view of other inmates, how about having the new facility on one of Singapore's outlying islands?

I understand that one of our islands, believed to be St John's Island, formerly housed a quarantine station for leprosy cases among immigrants until 1950. It later became a penal settlement and a drug rehabilitation centre.

Although having the new facility on the island may be inconvenient for the detainees' family members to visit, it will ensure that maximum security can be achieved.

Most importantly, if by some extraordinary chances, a detainee manages to escape out of the facility compound, he will be stuck on the small island.

Security forces can then work more effectively to apprehend the escaped detainee faster.

Besides, any detainee will be out of his mind if he believes that he can swim to and hide on the Singapore mainland, Malaysia or Indonesia.

This is because before this can even happen, our security forces and the Police Coast Guard would have already taken him into custody.

And in such a situation, there won't be the need to alarm the public or to activate a large number of security forces to find the escaped man.

Mr Jason Chen Ee Liang

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