CO129-591-8 Policy directives 10-3-1944 - 17-8-1944 — Page 115

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HONG KONG

CIVIL AFFAIRS POLICY DIRECTIVES

First Draft

8/4/44.

PRISONS

114

1.

Accommodation consisted of:-

Hong Kong Prison (Stanley): - 1476 single cells for males (of which

18 were used as stores).

Victoria Remand Prison:

Lai Chi Kok Female Prison:

166 male prisoners.

200

2. The chief disability under which the/Prison staff worked

was overcrowding.

There were in 1939 an average of 2832 prisoners at Stanley

instead of 1458. Three prisoners had to be housed in some cells

intended for single prisoners.

3.

Difficulty was experienced in/finding useful employment

for prisoners.

In 1939 the daily average was 1391 men employed at

Stanley and 205 women in the Lai Chi Kok Prison.

of a lack of technical instructors.

Complaint was made

4. In the first instance the Prisons Department should be

administered as a branch of the Police Department under general

control of the Commissioner of Police.

5. The administration of the Prisons on the same lines as

those in force in pre-war days should be re-introduced under the

ble control of the Commissioner of Police and if practical the

recommendations adopted for reducing the prison population which were

advanced by the Commission on Prisons in 1939. The chief of these

labour was the substitution of sentences of detention in a camp for the

$ short sentence of imprisonment which were so numerous as to clutter

up the prison proper. Such camp if created was to be on the

Mainland.

6.

Efforts should be made to provide useful employment for as

many prisoners as possible. This will entail the creation of a

staff of industrial instructors which would be possible from among

Chinese graduates of local industrial Colleges.