ENG-1961 — Page 253

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LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS

convicted addicts released from Tai Lam between 1st April 1960 and 31st March 1961 showed that 80% had not been reconvicted for any offence. While this does not prove the same rate of cure, it is nevertheless a most encouraging figure, because the uncured drug addict is usually soon found in possession of drugs and re- arrested.

The morale at the Training Centres continued to be very high and the reconviction rate is one of the lowest in the world. The two Centres cater for boys between the ages of 14 and 21, and the régime in these open institutions is based on strict discipline com- bined with a constructive approach to training. The Massed Corps of Drums from both the Stanley and Cape Collinson Centres per- formed at a Youth Rally in honour of HRH Princess Alexandra in November.

Planning for more ‘open institutions' and for the development of existing facilities went ahead during 1961. A new open prison at Tong Fuk is now at the drawing-board stage and will eventually take another 1,000 short-term prisoners out to Lantau Island, where their main task will be to afforest the catchment area of the new Shek Pik reservoir, and the whole south-eastern end of Lantau.

Since the war, new prison institutions have been accommodated in adapted buildings and Tong Fuk will be the first Hong Kong prison since 1935 to be housed in new buildings. Adaptation of existing buildings has been expensive, but the total was only a fraction of what new institutions would have cost. Chi Ma Wan Prison, the first of the open prisons, was formerly a home for disabled people; Stanley Training Centre, the pioneer open centre for boys, was a group of food storage huts; Tai Lam Prison occupies the contractors' lines for the building of Tai Lam Chung dam, and Cape Collinson Training Centre occupies the site of a former army coastal battery. It so happens that all these are in exceptionally beautiful surroundings and were easily adaptable for prison purposes. The possibility of making more such 'take-over bids' has come to an end, at least for the time being; hence the decision to build an entirely new open prison at Tong Fuk.

An open prison for women at Tai Lam is scheduled to replace the present women's prison at Lai Chi Kok, and this project was given a priority which enabled planning to proceed.