XN000022-1977-10-01 — Page 5

Saturday, October 1, 1977

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PRISONS DRUG TREATMENT "A VERY SPLENDID ACHIEVEM INDU

Nearly 60 per cent of the 7,859 persons released from the Prisons

Department's Drug Addiction Treatment Centres between 1969 and 1976 have not

been "reconvicted or relapsed into drug taking.'

This was disclosed by the Medical Training Administrator of the

Medical and Health Department, Dr. 0.0. Lee, at a graduation parade of 98

Prison Officers and Assistant Officers at the Prisons Department's Staff

Training Institute in Stanley this (Saturday) morning.

Dr. Lee described this as "a very splendid achievement" and said

it was a reflection on the hard work put in by the staff of the Prisons

Department.

Dr. Lee has been closely associated with the work of the Prisons

Department as Medical Officer at Stanley Prison for 10 years from 1948 to

1957.

"At the time when I commenced my service with the department in

1948, there were only three prisons, namely Stanley, Victoria and the

female prison at Lai Chi Kok. They were overcrowded with limited accommoda-

tion and few, if any, facilities for the re-education and social rehabilita-

tion of prisoners, young and old," he said.

Dr. Lee stressed that because of the important and essential work

of the department in safe-guarding the security of our society and for the

protection of the community, new prisons and institutions had to be planned

and commissioned.

"Equally important," he added, "is the need to assist the department

to provide effective and practical systems of rehabilitation through correc-

tional treatment, educational, vocational and work training for the different

categories of persons through the courts.

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