Origin

First held in the United States in 1997, the “Prisons Lockdown Challenge” is an international-level challenge aiming at testing custodial staff on how well they respond to emergent events. In the challenge held in the United States in 2009, there were a total of 1142 participants from 14 regions. The Singapore Prison Service sent its team to participate in 2007 to 2009 and won the champion in 2009.


During the American Prisons Lockdown Challenge (photos source: Mock Prison Riot)

To enhance emergency response competence of prison staff in Asia, the Singapore Prison Service held the very first “Asian Prisons Lockdown Challenge” on 8 to 12 March, and invited teams from prisons in Asia to participate. Eventually, 9 teams from 4 regions joined. The system of the Challenge was similar to that of the ones held in the United States: through completing the challenges and tasks, the objective of upgrading professional skills is achieved. Director of Macao Prison Lee Kam Cheong led a total of 12 persons to compete in the Challenge.

Events in the 1st “Asian Prisons Lockdown Challenge”

There were 3 team competitions in the Challenge, namely “Shooting”, “Riot Suppression” and “Hostage Rescue”. In each of the team events, participating teams had to complete the challenges within the shortest time possible. In “Shooting”, teams had to shoot at the target within the shortest time possible. In “Riot Suppression”, teams must equip their gear, bring their weapons, extinguish the fire, break the siege, shoot the 20 targeted trouble-makers with plastic bullets, and rapidly rescue the persons trapped. In “Hostage Rescue”, teams were required to reach the rescue point at their fastest, overcome the obstacles, rescue the hostages in hazy surroundings and take them back to the starting point.

In addition, there was also an “Individual Challenge” for testing physical fitness and professional skills as a custodial staff. Participants had to complete 7 parts, such as running while shouldering a 100-pound dummy, passing 10 physically difficult obstacles, searching within detention areas and shooting, etc. The participant who completed the all the parts with the shortest amount of time would be the winner.