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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume. 34, Number 7. 1971

Tanglin - Military Corrective Training Centre

Tanglin - Military Corrective Training Centre.

The purpose of a military corrective training centre is, as the title suggests, for corrective rehabilitation training in the form of strict discipline. It is a reminder that this is how you are expected to behave, a bringing back into line of offenders by direct, sustained assertion of authority. Introduction to this discipline is immediate. On entering you are issued with more gear, then, staggering under the load, you are marched away at 140 paces a minute which is the established marching pace. Talking is prohibited, except at meals, singing and whistling are not allowed, you must be respectful to staff, etc., etc., the list is endless.

The main cell block was a large two storied building with 20 rooms on each storey. The silent tenseness is enhanced by an almost clinical cleanliness which is strangely discordant in such an old building.

This is called Stage one. For long term prisoners, Stage 2 and possible Stage 3, where the facilities are more luxurious, 6 cigarettes a day are allowed as opposed to 2, as positive incentives for good behaviour. (In this atmosphere of military precision, not saying 'yes Sir' quick enough or daring to smile is a serious offence punishable by rationing of your food.)

Everything in the rooms had an allocated place. Bed layout, and the kit folded in the trunk provided, had to be meticulously sized in position. Boots and shoes were never polished highly enough, and there was a continuous striving for perfection. I had to polish my brown sandals black. Perfection was expected, anything less upbraided.

The daily routine was based upon the same regimentation and methodical precision, the very movements of fetch person designed for uniformity and automation.

From 6 a.m. until finally allowed an hour's reading at 8 p.m. before lights out you are systematically hounded, ridiculed, screamed at and generally pushed about; deliberately, and they maintain, objectively.

The objective claim is, of course highly debatable. There are 2 shifts of 4 sergeants, or equivalent ranks from the other services, with a sergeant-major in charge of each. All of these were military 'policemen'.

A job of that nature is bound to attract people who take a more personal interest in discipline than is actually required. It is a job where a person's own failings can be very successfully projected onto hapless victims with little means of defence. There were a couple of people on the staff who had definite leanings in this direction, and who made life barely tolerable for the offenders undergoing the sentence. The question that immediately arises is, what safeguards are there to insure that such positions are not filled by people with personality deviations of a sadistic or power-oriented nature?