ENG-1976 — Page 176

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PUBLIC ORDER

work, tailoring, fibreglass moulding and making rattan furniture. Outside working parties are largely engaged in projects designed to benefit the local community.

Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre in the New Territories can accommodate 120 inmates requiring psychiatric treatment under conditions of special security on account of their dangerous, violent and criminal tendencies. Prisoners in other penal institutions requiring psychiatric treatment are also referred to the centre on medical recommenda- tion. In addition, those remanded by the courts for psychiatric reports are sent to Siu Lam. The centre is equipped to the most modern standards and is manned by trained staff with two psychiatrists in attendance daily.

With the exception of a number of high security risk women prisoners who are accommodated in a separate section of the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre, all other female offenders are accommodated at the nearby Tai Lam Centre for Women. It serves as a conventional prison for remand and convicted prisoners, and also has separate sections providing a training centre for young offenders in the 14 to 21 age group and a treatment centre for female drug dependants.

Chatham Road Centre in Kowloon is mainly for offenders remanded by the courts on minor charges. It is a minimum security institution which also caters for young and adult prisoners with less than a year to serve. In addition, the centre has a geriatric unit.

Training Centres

In January 1976 the Pik Uk Correctional Institution—a maximum security facility in the New Territories-became operational with accommodation for 398 young offenders between the ages of 14 and 21. The institution has a dual function as a prison and a training centre for the more intractable delinquents. It also caters for young remand prisoners awaiting trial or those remanded by the courts for reports on suitability for training and detention centres.

Besides the Pik Uk training centre, there are two training centres on Hong Kong Island. The one at Cape Collinson caters mainly for the 17-21 age group while that at Tai Tam Gap accommodates those between 14 and 17 years. These centres are run on highly disciplined lines and operate on a half-day school and half-day work basis. Inmates are taught a wide range of crafts, from tailoring and carpentry to building maintenance and automobile repair. Those committed to training centres have to serve a minimum of six months to a maximum of three years, at the discretion of the Commissioner of Prisons. No inmate is released until he has a job to go to or arrange- ments have been made to further his education. Release is followed by a compulsory period of three years' supervision under an aftercare officer.

Detention Centre

The Sha Tsui Detention Centre on Lantau Island provides the courts with another alternative to imprisonment for delinquents aged between 14 and 21. This centre is intended for the first offender or those with a short criminal history. The emphasis at Sha Tsui is on strict discipline, hard work and few privileges. This centre