PART XVI
SENTENCES
Division 1 — Sentences in general
Corrective training and preventive detention
304. —(1) Where a person of the age of 18 years or above —
(a) is convicted before the High Court or a District Court of an offence punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more, and has been convicted in Singapore or elsewhere at least twice since he reached the age of 16 years for offences punishable with such a sentence; or
(b) is convicted at one trial before the High Court or a District Court of 3 or more distinct offences punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more, and has been convicted and sentenced in Singapore or elsewhere to imprisonment for at least one month since he reached the age of 16 years for an offence punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more,
then, if the court is satisfied that it is expedient with a view to his reformation and the prevention of crime that he should receive training of a corrective character for a substantial period of time, followed by a period of supervision if released before the expiration of his sentence, the court, unless it has special reasons for not doing so, shall sentence him to corrective training for a period of 5 to 14 years in lieu of any sentence of imprisonment.
(2) Where a person of the age of 30 years or above —
(a) is convicted before the High Court or a District Court of an offence punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more, and has been convicted in Singapore or elsewhere at least 3 times since he reached the age of 16 years of offences punishable with such a sentence, and was on at least 2 of those occasions sentenced to imprisonment or corrective training; or
(b) is convicted at one trial before the High Court or a District Court of 3 or more distinct offences punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more, and has been convicted and sentenced in Singapore or elsewhere to imprisonment for at least one month since he reached the age of 16 years for an offence punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more,
then, if the court is satisfied that it is expedient for the protection of the public that he should be detained in custody for a substantial period of time, followed by a period of supervision if released before the expiration of his sentence, the court, unless it has special reasons for not doing so, shall sentence him to preventive detention for a period of 7 to 20 years in lieu of any sentence of imprisonment.
(3) Before sentencing any offender to corrective training or preventive detention, the court must call for and consider any report submitted by the Director of Prisons, or any person authorised by the Director of Prisons to submit the report on his behalf, on the offender’s physical and mental condition and his suitability for such a sentence; and if the court has not received such a report, it must remand the offender in custody for a period or periods, not exceeding one month in the case of any single period, to enable the report to be submitted.
(4) The court must give a copy of any report submitted by the Director of Prisons to the offender or his advocate and to the Public Prosecutor.
(5) Where an offender who is sentenced under subsection (1) or (2) is also convicted at the same trial of any offence other than an offence punishable with imprisonment for 2 years or more, the court may, on the application of the Public Prosecutor, instead of imposing any term of imprisonment as may be prescribed for that offence, take into account such offence for the purposes of determining the period of corrective training or preventive detention, as the case may be.
(6) A person sentenced to corrective training or preventive detention must be detained in a prison for the term of his sentence in accordance with the regulations made under section 428.
Reformative training
305. —(1) Where a person is convicted by a court of an offence punishable with imprisonment and that person is, on the day of his conviction —
(a) of or above the age of 16 years but below the age of 21 years; or
(b) of or above the age of 14 years but below the age of 16 years and has, before that conviction, been dealt with by a court in connection with another offence and had, for that offence, been ordered to be sent to a juvenile rehabilitation centre established under section 64 of the Children and Young Persons Act (Cap. 38),
the court may impose a sentence of reformative training in lieu of any other sentence if it is satisfied, having regard to his character, previous conduct and the circumstances of the offence, that to reform him and to prevent crime he should undergo a period of training in a reformative training centre.
[3/2011]
(2) Where a young person has been ordered by a Juvenile Court under the Children and Young Persons Act to be brought before a District Court, then the court must inquire into the circumstances of the case and may —
(a) if satisfied that to reform him he should undergo a period of training in a reformative training centre, sentence him to reformative training instead of any other sentence; or
(b) in any case, deal with him in the manner that the Juvenile Court might have dealt with him.
(3) Before imposing any sentence of reformative training, the court must call for and consider any report submitted by the Director of Prisons, or any person authorised by the Director of Prisons to submit the report on his behalf, on the offender’s physical and mental condition and his suitability for the sentence; and if the court has not received such a report, it must remand the offender in custody for a period or periods, not exceeding one month in the case of any single period, to enable the report to be submitted.
(4) The court must give a copy of any report submitted by the Director of Prisons to the offender or his advocate and to the Public Prosecutor.
(5) A person sentenced to reformative training must be detained in accordance with the regulations made under section 428.
Sentence in case of conviction for several offences at one trial
306. —(1) Where a person is convicted at one trial of any 2 or more distinct offences, the court must sentence him for those offences to the punishments that it is competent to impose.
(2) Subject to section 307 and subsection (4), where these punishments consist of imprisonment, they are to run consecutively in the order that the court directs, or they may run concurrently if the court so directs.
(3) The court need not send the offender for trial before a higher court merely because the combined punishment for the various offences exceeds the punishment which the court is competent to inflict for a single offence.
(4) Subject to any written law, a Magistrate’s Court or District Court may not impose a total term of imprisonment that exceeds twice that which such court is competent to impose under section 303.
Consecutive sentences in certain cases
307. —(1) Subject to subsection (2), if at one trial a person is convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for at least 3 distinct offences, the court before which he is convicted must order the sentences for at least 2 of those offences to run consecutively.
(2) Where a sentence of life imprisonment is imposed by the High Court at a trial mentioned in subsection (1), the other sentences of imprisonment must run concurrently with the sentence of life imprisonment, except that where the Court of Appeal sets aside or reduces the sentence of life imprisonment then the Court of Appeal may order any of the other sentences of imprisonment to run consecutively.
Limit of punishment for offence made up of several offences
308. —(1) Where anything which is an offence is made up of parts, any of which parts is itself an offence, the person who committed the offence shall not be punished with the punishment of more than one of such offences unless it is expressly provided.
(2) Where —
(a) anything is an offence falling within 2 or more separate definitions of any law in force for the time being by which offences are defined or punished; or
(b) several acts, of which one or more than one would by itself or themselves constitute an offence, constitute when combined a different offence,
the person who committed the offence shall not be punished with a more severe punishment than the court which tries him could award for any one of such offences.
Illustrations
(a) A gives Z 50 strokes with a stick. Here A may have committed the offence of voluntarily causing hurt to Z by the whole beating, and also by each of the blows which make up the whole beating. If A were liable to punishment for every blow, he might be imprisoned for 50 years, one for each blow. But he is liable only to one punishment for the whole beating.
(b)But if, while A is beating Z, Y interferes and A intentionally strikes Y, here, as the blow given to Y is no part of the act whereby A voluntarily causes hurt to Z, A is liable to one punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to Z, and to another for the blow given to Y.
Determination of sentence - national proceedings
EDIT.