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PUBLIC ORDER
screened on local television during the year and aggregated audience figures for the series exceeded two million.
The Community Research Unit, which is responsible for monitoring changes in public attitudes to corruption and community responses to the commission's activities, conducted a number of surveys on the public's attitude towards corruption and their reception of the commission's educational programmes. The findings of these surveys will assist the commission in planning future programmes and development.
Prisons Department
Although prisons have been operating since the founding of Hong Kong and part of Victoria Prison dates back to that era, it was only 40 years ago that the first Commis- sioner of Prisons was appointed. He had responsibility for Stanley Prison, the Lai Chi Kok Women's Prison and later Victoria Prison which had to be reopened follow- ing overcrowding at Stanley. Today the Commissioner of Prisons is responsible for 17 penal institutions, a half-way house and a staff training institute, and has an establishment of 3,649 uniformed staff and 598 civilian staff. The average daily penal population has increased from 3,003 in 1939 to 6,676 in 1978.
The fall in the daily average penal population recorded in 1977 continued in 1978 and, by the second half of the year, there was no overcrowding in institutions. Indeed Stanley "Prison, for the first time in its history, was accommodating less than its certified accommodation.
With this background, 1978 has been a year of development, innovation, steady progress and planning for the future. Overall it was a successful year which saw the implementation of much of the planning and hard work put in over recent years.
The most important changes were in the facilities for young offenders. The newly- constructed Lai King Training Centre was opened in September which, with the sub- sequent closing of the outdated Chatham Road Centre, enabled the Tai Tam Gap Training Centre to be converted to a minimum security prison for young offenders. At the same time, security in one wing of the Pik Uk Correctional Institution was strengthened to allow the holding of top security young prisoners. This meant that by the end of the year all young prisoners were accommodated in institutions set aside for young offenders.
On the building and development side, work started on the maximum security prison at Shek Pik on Lantau Island, the new minimum security prison at Stanley, and on plans for the building of 349 staff quarters on the island of Hei Ling Chau. Approval was also given for the first phase of the rebuilding of Stanley Prison. In addition, a new radio network is nearing completion. This will provide a 24-hour link between all institutions, improving communications and security throughout the department.
A progressive step was the recruitment of four clinical psychologists. This nucleus of a psychological unit resulted from the report of a United Nations adviser, Dr Robert G. Andry, in 1976. A return visit in 1978 enabled a further study to be under- taken on the establishment of psychological services within the various penal pro- grammes, and for advice to be obtained on the way these should be developed. The new unit provides counselling and professional advice to some institutions, with priority given to reception prisons. Because there are only four psychologists the