CO129-591-9 Policy directives 15-1-1945 - 15-1-1945 — Page 29

SECRET

HONG KONG

CIVIL AFFAIRS POLICY DIRECTIVES

PRISONS

29

1.

During the period of military administration the

Prisons Department should be administered as a branch of the

Police Department under the general control of the Commissioner

of Police, on the same lines as in pre-war days.

Z

Early consideration should be given to the adoption

of the recommendations for reducing the prison population which

were advanced by the Commission on Prisons in 1939, in particular,

the substitution of sentences of detention in a labour camp for

the short sentences of imprisonment which were so numerous as to

overcrowd the prisons. This camp, if created, should be on the

Mainland.

3.

T

Colonial Office Memorandum on modern conceptions of

penal administration (prepared for the Controller of Development

and Welfare in the West Indies) should be used for general

guidance in so far as it is applicable to local conditions.

4.

Efforts should be made to provide useful employment for

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

& staff of industrial instructors for which suitably qualified

Chinese candidates might be found.

·

In the re-staffing of the prisons the proportion of

non-European Prison Officers should be increased.

من

Colonial Office,

8th October, 1945.