Imprison- ment of young persons.
Industrial Schools.
54
The premises are held on a tenancy which requires six months notice for termination. The buildings are old, somewhat wasteful of space and of poor construction but the Director of Public Works considers that with an expendi- ture of $13,000 the requisite painting, colourwashing, general repairs and renovation of cutbuildings and the surfacing of yard could be carried out. The premises when renovated would then afford accommodation for some fifty boys and would at the lowest possible cost to Government provide an essential part of the machinery for the effective operation of the Juvenile Courts. It is understood that the Remand Home proposed would be available as temporary accommodation for boys found wandering and not having any home or found begging or receiving alms (see Sec. 17 draft Bill and Sec. 16 model Bill) as well as for youthful offenders generally.
We recommend that when restored to its original use the Remand Home (Belilios Reformatory) should be placed under the control of the Inspector General of Police with a police officer in charge specially selected for the purpose, who should not wear uniform. The police guards provided at the Home would be in uniform.
We do not regard as satisfactory the present arrangements whereunder young persons who are committed to prison are imprisoned in Victoria Gaol. This arrangement is regarded as unsatisfactory both from the point of view of the health of the offenders and from the fact that this Gaol is the place for the imprisonment of long sentence prisoners.
We
e recommend that, as soon as conditions permit, juvenile offenders should serve their sentences in wards set apart for them in the Laichikok Branch Prison.
The provision of the Remand Home referred to in the foregoing para- graphs is intended for boys only as the premises are not large enough for subdivision into male and female sections. We consider that in the case of girls of whom there are fortunately only few, the Po Leung Kuk will be the Home for their reception both before they go to Court and while on remand, the necessary arrangements being made as heretofore by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to whom all such cases are sent in the first instance. We recommend that girl offenders be sent after conviction by the Court to the Women's Industrial Home, an institution conducted by the Salvation Army. This home is prepared under certain conditions to take all cases.
It is unfortunate that no industrial or reformatory schools exist in the Colony at present. In England Home Office schools are divided into two
main classes:
(a) Reformatory schools.
(b) Industrial schools.
Reformatory schools are intended for the reception from the Courts of youthful offenders who have reached the age of twelve years but have not reached the age of sixteen and who have been convicted of an offence punishable in the case of an adult with penal servitude or imprisonment. The Detention Order must specify a period of not less than three years and not more than five years but not in any case extending beyond the time when the youthful offender will attain the age of nineteen.
Industrial schools are intended broadly speaking for the reception from the Courts of children under fourteen who are so neglected by their parents as to be placed in a situation of moral danger. (There are 27 reformatory and 50 industrial schools in England). The object of having two grades of schools appears to be to segregate the youthful offenders from destitute or neglected. children. Such a distinction might be made even in one institution where the total number of youthful offenders is insufficient to warrant the building and equipment of separate establishments. We therefore contemplate at present the institution of one type of establishment only, leaving it to the authorities concerned to segregate or amalgamate the two classes of inmates if amalgama-