"What we are proposing is that where the Public Prosecutor has certified that substantive cooperation has been provided, judges will have the discretion to sentence them (drug traffickers) to life imprisonment with caning.

The law also makes an exception for those convicted of murder who didn't intend to cause death. They can now request life plus caning.

Since November 15, the lawyers for the 34 drug offenders and murderers sentenced to death have been asked to confer with their clients to determine if they want to request life (plus caning.)

How humane is it to impose caning on a mentally disabled person?

Singapore has mandatory caning for a variety of offenses, including immigration offenses like overstaying your visa and graffiti.

You aren't safe if you recently consumed drugs before going to Singapore. According to our State Department,

Singapore police have the authority to compel both residents and non-residents to submit to random drug analysis. They do not distinguish between drugs consumed before or after entering Singapore in applying local laws....Singaporean authorities do impose these sentences on foreign nationals, including U.S. citizens.

Singapore is in the process of introducing new tests, such as hair analysis, to detect drug abuse more effectively.

What a choice: Death by hanging or life in a Singapore prison plus torture. And yet, as Al Jazeera makes clear today, many in Singapore think the Government went too far in its reform efforts.

Over in Indonesia, in Schapelle Corby news, her parole is indefinitely on hold, even though she became eligible in September. Why? Because Indonesia just changed its law and she can neither return to Australia or remain free in Indonesia:

"In the new immigration law a foreign citizen who is undergoing legal process or serving sentences is not able to be given a visa," director for prison training and service Rahmat Prio Sutarjo said.

"If a foreign citizen (does not have a) stay permit, then he or she has to go to (an) immigration detention centre. This is not a parole situation any more because it's still detention."

Another official says:

We have suspended parole requests by foreign prisoners as the new immigration law contradicts a current regulation," senior prisons official Rachmat Priyo Sutardjo told AFP.

Sutardjo explained that the regulation required convicts on parole -- including foreigners -- to "mingle with society" in Indonesia. "But if they have no visa, they will either be placed in a detention centre or they will be deported, so they won't be able to follow the regulation," he said.

Just last week, there was another riot at Bali's Kerobokan prison. Two inmates were found dead in their cells. One had bruises on his body.

Back to Singapore, why people want to visit a country where it is illegal to chew gum in public or jaywalk, and subject themselves to some of the most draconian penalties on the planet is beyond me.