PUBLIC ORDER
149
The advance of development programmes, increasing commitments arising from the refugee influx, and severe weather, all had a major impact on the work of the department in 1982.
Among development projects, construction of Tung Tau Correctional Institution was completed and this minimum security prison, with accommodation for 240 inmates, commenced operations in November, 1982. Construction of the new maximum security prison at Shek Pik on Lantau Island, and a new half-way house and pre-release centre in Kowloon, progressed satisfactorily, as did projects to expand facilities on Hei Ling Chau and to extend the Staff Training Institute. Most of these developments will be completed in 1983.
The department seconded 85 uniformed staff to manage Vietnamese refugee detention and departure, operated by the Security Branch. In July, closed centres for refugees were introduced under the control and management of the department. Nearly 300 staff were recruited and trained to supervise refugees in these centres.
In May, the Tai Lam Centre for Women suffered extensive damage during a rainstorm. A torrent of water from a nearby hillside demolished part of the outer wall and the inner fence and a section of the laundry, severely affecting the programmes at the centre. In August another rainstorm caused further damage. The kerbstone workshop in the adjacent Tai Lam Correctional Institution was also flooded and minor landslides occurred on the hillside behind the institution.
Adult Male Offenders
The department operates nine prisons and a psychiatric centre for male adults, with a total certified accommodation of 5 425. The number of adult male prisoners increased during the year to an average daily population of 4856, an increase of 7.1 per cent over 1981-
Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre houses adult males on remand, detainees under the Immigration Ordinance, newly-convicted prisoners pending classification and allocation to other institutions, and appellants. However, certain appellants are detained in Victoria Prison, Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre and Stanley Prison, and some remands are detained in Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre to relieve the pressure on accommodation at Lai Chi Kok. Male debtors are accommodated in the Tai Lam Correctional Institution.
Stanley Prison, which is the largest maximum security institution with capacity for 1 605, accommodated an average of 1 468 prisoners a day. When the maximum security prison under construction on Lantau Island at Shek Pik (with accommodation for 480) is completed in August 1983 it will provide badly-needed additional facilities for the confinement of the increasing number of prisoners sentenced to life and other long terms. Two medium security prisons are operated by the department: Ma Po Ping on Lantau Island and Victoria Prison in Central District. In addition to its function of accommodating adult male prisoners and appellants, Victoria Prison is used to detain illegal immigrants. The department operates five minimum security prisons for adult male offenders. They are Ma Hang Prison, Pik Uk Prison, Tai Lam Correctional Institution, Tong Fuk Centre and Tung Tau Correctional Institution. The certified accommodation of Pik Uk Prison was increased from 450 to 500 in September 1982 to provide additional accommodation for the increasing number of prisoners requiring minimum security conditions. Prisoners at Pik Uk largely constitute the workforce for the institution's laundry. Elsewhere, prisoners generally work on outside projects, such as afforestation, road building and local community development.