Recalcitrant Offender

The term recalcitrant basically refers to someone that is deemed unwilling to obey orders or are generally difficult to deal with. In a legal sense you can could define some as recalcitrant in terms of their inability to follow the law and defiant in general of authority or restraint. Someone who is a recalcitrant offender is an individual who has been sentenced to imprisonment or corrective training on more than one occasion.

"Recalcitrant offender admits to role in Cuscaden Road harpoon attack" - The Straits Times

Someone who is deemed a recalcitrant offender in Singapore may receive preventative detention, which involves confinement in prison from 7 to a maximum of 20 years. It can be imposed by the District Court or the General Division of the High Court if the following is fulfilled:

• The individual is at least 30 years of age.
• You are deemed medically fit to undergo preventative detention.
• The individual has had at least 3 prior convictions since they reached the age of 16 years. These must satisfy the criteria stated in section 304(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.