TNAG-0416-FCO40-462-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 70

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TREATMENT OF OFFENDERS

Until 1958, people found to be drug dependent upon admission to prison received the same treatment as other prisoners. This was obviously undesirable. Clearly, a special programme was needed to deal with these cases and to offer a form of treatment which would give them a real chance of ridding themselves permanently of their addiction.

Because new institutions are costly, and because in the public mind, projects such as schools and hospitals take priority, a search was made for existing buildings which could be readily converted and put to use.

When the Tai Lam Chung reservoir scheme was completed on the southern seaboard of the New Territories, the workers' lines and engineers' quarters became available. Considerable alteration and improvement converted these to serve as the nucleus of the present Tai Lam Treatment Centre, providing good, unpretentious accommodation for inmates. Bungalows for senior officers and married quarters for janior staff have since been added.

At the start in 1958 due to the poor physical condition of those admitted it was thought that the hospital and light labour sections would make up the bulk of the centre, but this has not proved the case. Physical recovery is rapid and dramatic-photographs of inmates and weight records prove this.

Unless suffering severely from tuberculosis or some other physical disease, or simply from old age, a drug dependent soon becomes fit for work, and the nature of the work does much to restore his self-

respect.

All convicted male prisoners sentenced to imprisonment are in the first instance admitted to the reception and classification centre. There they appear before a classification and asssessment board which on the basis of information available decides the institution to which individual

prisoners are allocated.

Between 1958 and 1963 prisoners who were found to be drug dependent were selected at the time of classification and assessment for allocation to Tại Lam. Information most relevant to this decision at that time was the type of offence and length of sentence. Only prisoners sentenced to terms of imprisonment for 3 years or less were sent to Tai Lam.