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Medical Services in Penal Institutions and Closed Centres All institutions are provided with centre hospitals or sick bays to offer treatment and health care for inmates including chest X-rays, blood tests, vaccinations and inoculations. All persons are given a thorough examination by the medical officer on admission and, where required, appropriate treatment. Persons requiring intensive medical care or surgery are referred to visiting consultants or transferred to government hospitals. Offenders who are suffering from drug withdrawal symptoms on admission are detoxified either in an institutional sick bay or as out-patients.
Two psychiatrists from Castle Peak Hospital visit Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre and the psychiatric observation unit at Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre daily to provide psychiatric consultation and assessment of inmates referred from other institutions. Ante-natal and post-natal care is provided at institutions for women and closed centres for refugees, and arrangements are made for babies to be born in government hospitals.
Staff Training
All recruits are required to undergo one year of basic training which is divided into three stages - initial, intermediate and final – with brief field placements between each stage.
The training programme covers an extensive syllabus which includes regulations and procedures governing the administration and management of penal institutions, technical training in foot-drill, self-defence, weaponry, riot control, first aid, criminology, basic psychology and social work. These all assist trainees to develop an understanding of crime, the dynamics of human behaviour and the treatment of offenders. Field placements in the different types of institutions afford trainees the opportunity to learn about the practical aspects of their work.
Development training is also conducted to provide more experienced staff with the means to refresh and update their knowledge, promote personal development and increase effectiveness and efficiency.
Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society
The Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, a voluntary organisation, has been providing tangible assistance and counselling services to discharged prisoners since 1957. The service rendered by the society includes counselling, job placement and the provision of employ- ment rehabilitation centres, hostel accommodation and recreational facilities for discharged prisoners. One of its recent developments that merits special recognition is the establish- ment of separate services and hostel facilities for prisoners with a history of mental illness.
Closed Centres for Vietnamese Refugees
The number of Vietnamese refugees detained in closed centres managed by the department rose to 5 654 at the end of 1984 compared with 5 410 the previous year.
Following factional unrest in February, northern Vietnamese were separated from their southern compatriots, and the main closed centres at Hei Ling Chau and Chi Ma Wan then became centres for northern and southern Vietnamese respectively. A smaller closed centre at Cape Collinson Correctional Institution accommodated a stable population of refugee families from northern and southern Vietnam.
Concentration of the northern Vietnamese at Hei Ling Chau Closed Centre forestalled further factional trouble, but the new situation gradually brought home the reality of their slower resettlement rate compared with that of the southern Vietnamese. They drew attention to their frustration by refusing food for three days from July 2. The protest ended
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