38. The number of posts provided for probation work (as distinct from work in correctional institutions) was 53 at the end of the year, but the Probation Service was below establishment due in part to resignations and in part to difficulties in recruiting sufficient male officers. During the period some officers were away on in-service or further training courses. The number of officers actually available and gazetted averaged 48 and these officers were responsible for the supervi- sion of an active caseload of 2,310 probationers and others during the period. Detailed figures are given in Appendix 7. Individual caseloads have been heavy. The technical 'success' rate, that is to say the number of those who completed their periods of probation without any further offences, is now 66.1 per cent, a rate which was also maintained in the early 1960s. Most of the 'failures' were subsequently sentenced to further reformatory school training or to prison if they belonged to the older age-group.
39. Following on the recommendations of the Working Party on Juvenile Courts in 1968, a permanent Juvenile Magistrate was appointed in February 1969 to take over all the juvenile courts in Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories. Since this appointment, juvenile proba- tion cases have no longer been referred to the Probation Committees; instead the Juvenile Magistrate discussed these cases on a monthly basis with Probation Officers at meetings attended also by the Principal Probation Officer.
CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS
40. During the year a new reformatory school was opened at O Pui Shan thereby increasing to five the number of juvenile correctional institutions, including one for girls.
41. The Castle Peak Boys' Home and the recently opened O Pui Shan Boys' Home are reformatory schools established under the Industrial and Reformatory Schools Ordinance, Chapter 225 and are run on the lines of an approved school in Britain. These schools provide residential care and training for juvenile offenders committed by the Juvenile Court for an indeterminate sentence of between one to five years. The Castle Peak Boys' Home has a capacity for 120 and caters for senior boys aged 14-16, while the O Pui Shan Boys' Home which has a capacity for 140 and caters for junior boys aged 14 and under. In both Homes a programme of training is designed so as to let the boys grow and develop in a fairly permissive, but reason-
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