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Selected staff are also sent on courses run by relevant government departments and local universities, or to participate in overseas visits and training in order to broaden their horizons and to keep them abreast of the latest trend and developments in correctional services world wide.
Non-government Organisations
Several organisations help the CSD provide services to help inmates reintegrate into the community. These include the Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders, Hong Kong; Caritas Lok Heep Club; Hong Kong Christian Kun Sun Association; Wu Oi Christian Centre and the Prisoners' Friends' Association. They provide services such as case work, counselling, hostel accommodation, employment assistance, recreational activities and care for those with a history of mental illness.
Civil Aid Service
The Civil Aid Service (CAS) is a government auxiliary emergency service with an establishment of 3 634 adult members, 3 232 cadets and a permanent staff of 126 civil
servants.
Roles and Responsibilities
Its main role is to support government departments in tackling emergency situations. Volunteers are trained to perform emergency duties during typhoons, landslips and flooding; to search for and rescue people lost, injured or trapped in mountains, collapsed buildings or buried in landslides; to combat scrub fires and oil pollution at sea; and to carry out crowd control duties and provide communication services at charity functions and government events.
Service Training
The CAS provides full-time and part-time training to its volunteers to equip and prepare them for their operational tasks. Training covers counter-disaster skills, vegetation fire-fighting, anti-oil pollution, flood rescue, radiological protection, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and conventional rescue instruction. In 1998, 184 full-time courses and 161 part-time courses were conducted. During the year, the CAS continued to send its permanent staff and volunteers overseas for mountain rescue and disaster management training.
Mountain Safety Education
Based on the recommendations of the Inter-departmental Investigation Team after the Pat Sin Leng hill fire in 1996, the CAS expanded its role to help promote public awareness of mountain safety. In April 1998 a Special Operations and Training Section was set up to conduct training courses on mountain/hiking safety for organised groups, school teachers, and hiking group leaders. The CAS also provided basic mountain rescue training for members of the emergency services and working- at-height training for staff of government departments and the private sector. In 1998, 19 mountain rescue/hiking safety courses and 10 working-at-height training sessions were conducted.
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