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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
Inquiries into the social background of offenders, by which the Courts are assisted in awarding appropriate treatment, were made by the Probation Section in the case of 1,289 males and 462 females of whom 63 males and 9 females were sentenced to deten- tion in institutions run by or associated with the Section; others were referred to welfare centres, clinics, etc. for assistance in rehabilitation or sent for reformative training to one or other of the training centres administered by the Prisons Department. Officers also continued, after inquiry, to supervise selected cases of persons unable immediately to pay their fines, as an alternative to imprisonment.
The two Probation Committees first appointed in 1958 met half yearly to review cases and to advise the Probation Staff. These Committees, one for Hong Kong and one for Kowloon and the New Territories, consist of all the Magistrates in each Magistracy and three Justices of the Peace appointed by the Governor. The Industrial and Reformatory Schools Ordinance was amended and Rules promulgated in September 1959 for the better management of the Approved School, and more particularly for the discharge of inmates on licence.
The Remand Home, which has accommodation for 54 juveniles, was widely used by the Juvenile Courts and the Police for three types of cases; those arrested and awaiting trial, those on remand, and those sentenced to detention for residential training for periods of a few months. 3,632 persons, of whom 446 were girls, were admitted to the Home during, the year.
The Castle Peak Boys' Home which was taken over by Govern- ment from the Salvation Army on 1st April 1958, was by the end of the current year running satisfactorily as an Approved School. It accommodates about a hundred delinquent boys between the ages of 10 and 15 committed for two to five years or until they reach 18, for vocational and trade training. The curriculum in- cludes primary education, carpentry, shoe-making and leather- work, tailoring, rattan-weaving, gardening, and pig and poultry keeping. The Kwai Chung Girls' Home can no longer be used for delinquent girls and a training institution, comparable to the Castle Peak Home for boys, is therefore much needed. Plans for this were in hand at the end of the year.
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