People can, and do change

You may have heard the old adage “a leopard never changes its spots.” The origins of that proverb come from the Old Testament and used in Jeremiah 13:23 where the prophet Jeremiah said “Can the Ethopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots?”. That more or less became the saying, and suggests that people and things cannot change their innate characteristics, especially when you are critical of those characteristics. Well as it turns out, it’s not entirely true: a leopard does indeed change its spots as it matures from <a href="https://www.livescience.com/950-leopard-spots.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">kitten to adult</a>, from really spotty to the more distinct rosette patterns. While the ability of adult leopards to change their spots is still being debated, what we do know is that adult leopards can change their coat colour to match seasonal changes in their environment. But this post isn’t about leopards changing spots. It’s really about change in people — humans, and the question we need to ask is, “do we believe people can change?” <h2>Can we (really) rehabilitate prisoners?</h2> I worked as a senior officer in the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) for a good number of years. That stint still stands as one of my proudest track history in terms of career choices, and one of the things that I thought I didn’t quite buy in then, but was unconsciously doing it my own way was the rehabilitation of inmates. The SPS’ entire mission is about rehabilitation of ex-offenders, and giving them a new lease of life. One thing that is significant about the SPS that the average Singapore citizen is unaware of is its stellar record of low recidivism as a result of its rehabilitative programmes. <a href="https://royphang.medium.com/people-can-and-do-change-a8df63458d4b">Click Here</a>