PUBLIC ORDER

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After-care officers contact supervisees regularly after release to provide them with appropriate assistance and guidance whenever necessary, and to ensure that strict compliance with prescribed supervision conditions on the part of the supervisees is observed. A breach of such conditions may result in recall for further training.

Success of the after-care programmes is measured by the percentage of supervisees who complete supervision without reconviction and, where applicable, remain drug free. At the end of 1990, the success rates were 94.2 per cent for the detention centre inmates, 66.2 per cent for male training centre inmates, 92.6 per cent for female training centre inmates, 85.6 per cent for young male prisoners and 90 per cent for young female prisoners, 70.3 per cent for male drug addiction treatment centre inmates and 76.4 per cent for female drug addiction treatment centre inmates.

Release Under Supervision

The Release Under Supervision and Pre-release Employment Schemes have been in operation since July 1988. Apart from those serving a life sentence or subject to deportation upon release, prisoners who have served not less than half or 20 months of a sentence (whichever period is the longer) of three years or more may apply for release under the supervision of the department's after-care officers for the entire remaining portion of their sentences. Under the Pre-release Employment Scheme, prisoners who are - serving a sentence of two years or more and are within six months of completing their sentence, may apply for release. If their applications are successful, they then work and live in a designated hostel under the supervision of after-care officers for the balance of their sentences. Prisoners who breach supervision conditions may be recalled to serve the remainder of their sentences. By the end of 1990, there were 197 applications for the Release Under Supervision Scheme and 486 for the Pre-release Employment Scheme. So far only 11 prisoners have been released under the Release Under Supervision Scheme and 47 under the Pre-release Employment Scheme upon the advice of the Release Under Supervision Board.

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Correctional Services Industries

Correctional Services Industries aim to keep prisoners and inmates gainfully employed, thereby reducing the risk of unrest due to boredom and lack of constructive activities. The industries also save public revenue by providing products and services to government departments and subvented organisations at reasonable prices.

Prisoners are paid for their work and they can make use of their earnings to make purchases from the canteen. More importantly, they will acquire the habit of useful work through participation in industrial production, eventually helping them to find a job after release.

The industries run a number of trades, the largest being laundry and garment making. Other trades include silkscreening, printing, envelope making, bookbinding, shoe-making, fibreglass work, metal work, leather work, precast concrete and carpentry. The commercial value of goods and services provided for the year is estimated to be $260 million.

Closed Centres and Detention Centres

The award of automatic refugee status to Vietnamese people reaching Hong Kong discontinued following a change in policy on June 16, 1988. In May 1990, the department

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