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SOCIAL WELFARE
assistance, special needs allowances and traffic accident victims assistance payments. It heard a total of 92 appeals during the year. Of these, five were related to public assist- ance, 82 to special needs allowance, and five to traffic accident victims assistance.
Services for Offenders
The Social Welfare Department has several statutory duties in the field of services for offenders. These duties have the objective of giving effect to the directions of the courts on the treatment of offenders through social work methods. The overall aim is to reintegrate offenders into the community through probation supervision, remand home service, residential training for young offenders and after-care services.
Probation applies to offenders of all age groups. It allows offenders to remain in the community under the supervision of probation officers and subject to prescribed rules set by the courts. Volunteers from many walks of life participate in the programme under a special scheme which enhances community involvement in the rehabilitation of offenders.
Under the Community Service Orders.Ordinance, the courts may order offenders aged over 14 years who are convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment, to perform unpaid work of benefit to the community in place of, or in addition to, another sentence. Offenders subject to a Community Service Order will be supervised by probation officers of the Social Welfare Department. To ensure that the scheme is developed in a way most appropriate to the situation in Hong Kong, the Social Welfare Department has studied the operation of a similar scheme in the United Kingdom and will implement a pilot project in early 1987.
Educational, pre-vocational, social and recreational training is provided in remand homes and residential institutions to assist juvenile offenders to return to the community as law-abiding citizens.
The Social Welfare Department operates seven institutions specialising in this work, each with a slightly different training programme to cater for the needs of both sexes and all age groups. Following a review of educational programmes in these institutions, the department is planning to introduce major improvements to the curricula, teaching standards and facilities for academic teaching and vocational training. The Begonia Road Boys' Home and Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home are combined remand and probation institutions for juvenile offenders and youth in need of statutory care and protection. The Pui Chi Boys' Home has helped to alleviate overcrowding in the probation section of the Begonia Road Boys' Home. Similarly, the Pui Yin Juvenile Home, operating since February 1986, has contributed to improving the conditions at the remand sections of the Begonia Road Boys' Home and Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home. The Castle Peak Boys' Home is for boys aged 14 to 16 on admission who need a longer period of training after conviction, while the O Pui Shan Boys' Home is a similar institution for offenders aged from seven to 14 on admission.
The Kwun Tong Hostel is a probation hostel for men aged between 16 and 21. There are long-term plans to improve residential facilities by constructing a new girls' home in Tuen Mun and reprovisioning the Castle Peak Boys' Home and Begonia Road Boys' Home.
The Social Welfare Department also operates an after-care unit which helps offenders to rejoin society by preparing them before they leave reformatory schools and supporting them after they are discharged. Besides the work carried out by the Social Welfare Department, several welfare agencies also provide services to help young offenders and young people with behavioral problems to reintegrate into the community.