PUBLIC ORDER
House, a halfway house for those who are in need of such support immediately following release.
Young Offender Assessment Panel
The Young Offender Assessment Panel, comprising staff from the Correctional Services and Social Welfare Departments, was established in April 1987 to provide magistrates with recommendations on the most appropriate programmes of rehabilitation for young offenders between 14 and 25. The service provided by the panel is available to Juvenile Courts and certain magistracies.
Education and Vocational Training
Offenders under the age of 21 attend educational and vocational training classes conducted by qualified teachers. Textbooks compiled by the department are used to provide inmates with more suitable and practical learning material matching their maturity in personality growth and development.
Adult offenders attend evening classes on a voluntary basis run by part-time teachers recruited by the department. Self-study packages and external correspondence courses are also available for those who are interested in taking part.
Both young and adult offenders are encouraged to take part in public examinations organised by the City and Guilds of London Institute, Pitman Examinations Institute, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Hong Kong Examinations Authority. Inmates are permitted to sit for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education examinations as school candidates. Some adult offenders have also participated in degree courses offered by the local Open Learning Institute and other academic institutions. In addition, a direct referral system has also been established with the Vocational Training Council, the Construction Industry Training Authority and the Clothing Industry Training Centre to help young inmates further their training upon release.
Skill training programmes have also been introduced on a voluntary basis for adult offenders at Ma Po Ping Prison, Tong Fuk Centre, Tai Lam Correctional Institution, Pik Uk Prison, Tung Tau Correctional Institution and Tai Lam Centre for Women.
Medical Services
All institutions have their own medical units providing basic treatment, health and dental care, including radiodiagnostic and pathological examinations as well as prophylactic inoculations. Inmates requiring specialist treatment are either referred to a visiting consultant or to specialist clinics in public hospitals. Those requiring hospitalisation are usually kept in custodial wards in public hospitals under the charge of correctional services officers.
Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre continues to treat prisoners with mental health problems and offer psychiatric consultations and assessments for inmates referred by other institutions and the courts.
Ante-natal and post-natal care is provided within institutions for female inmates but babies are normally delivered in public hospitals.
In addition to the custodial ward at Queen Mary Hospital, the department took over the security management of the custodial ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in June 1992. Although HIV/AIDS is still not a problem among the penal population, the department is committed to a programme of education and prevention.
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