PUBLIC ORDER
155
they are required to undertake 14 days annual training and a mini- mum of 60 hours instruction. During 1965 women police auxiliaries were recruited for the first time.
PRISONS
Hong Kong's penal system is probably as advanced as any in Asia and in most of its facets is abreast or ahead of penal reform programmes anywhere. Hard and constructive work carried out in mainly open conditions, coupled with a comprehensive and dynamic system of after-care, have produced a consistently low incidence of recidivism. Such recidivism as remains is largely con- fined to drug addicts and the chain of crime resulting from addiction. Offences centred around the narcotics problem remain the greatest single challenge to the Prison Service, although encourag- ing results have been achieved in the treatment centre at Tai Lam. Drug addicts serving medium terms of imprisonment are sent to Tai Lam for treatment, regardless of the nature of their offences, if the classification board considers they will benefit from it. The majority quickly respond to the treatment and the environment of the centre, which is run on open lines. The effects on the prisoner are rapid and dramatic. His addiction is quickly cured and there is an accompanying resurgence of physical well-being and improve- ment in physique.
Tai Lam is one of eight institutions controlled by the Com- missioner of Prisons. The others are security prisons at Stanley, Victoria and Lai Chi Kok, an' open prison at Chi Ma Wan, and training centres at Cape Collinson, Shek Pik and Stanley--the latter also containing a segregated remand section for boys. The average criminal population in all institutions is approximately 6,000, of whom some 3,500 are held in Stanley prison. The com- pletion next year of an open prison at Tong Fuk on Lantau Island, which will be the most modern in the Far East, will make it possible to reduce the population at Stanley to a more acceptable 2,200. The new prison will also bring the benefits of an open prison regime to more than half the total population of prisoners.
The open prison system has a much greater potential for suc- cessfully rehabilitating prisoners than the closed system, and it considerably eases their successful re-integration into society. Work,