Annex E
9 months to 6 months.
6
19. The Commissioner of Prisons has proposed this
reduction in the minimum period of detention for two main
reasons
(a)
(b)
experience of the working of training centres has
shown that the necessary rehabilitation of some
offenders can be adequately achieved in a period
of six months; and
the very heavy pressure on accommodation at training
centres makes such a reduction desirable.
20. It is not, however, suggested that the period of
supervision of a person released from a training centre, which lasts for 4 years from the date of the original sentence,
should be reduced.
PUBLIC ORDER (AMENDMENT) BILL 1973.
21.
At Annex E is the Public Order (Amendment) Bill, 1973, the object of which is to clarify and replace the
existing section which creates the offence of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.
22.
Honourable Members will recall that, by virtue of the Public Order (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance, 1972, which
came into effect on the 15th December, 1972, a person convicted
of an offence under section 33 of the Public Order Ordinance
must be sentenced to not less than 6 months' imprisonment or
to a detention order under the Detention Centres Ordinance.
23. This section has generally proved to be effective in practice and there have been approximately
under it since the 15th December last.
convictions
24. Generally speaking, though no doubt a few of them find a provision for mandatory sentences distasteful, magis-
trates have loyally applied the section. However, experience of the working of the section has shown that there are loop- holes available to a magistrate who is anxious to find one.