ENG-1990 — Page 339

PUBLIC ORDER

ceased to be responsible for managing closed centres for refugees, a task first undertaken in July 1982. The department now manages only detention centres for Vietnamese boat people. Currently, the centres at Chi Ma Wan, Hei Ling Chau, Nei Kwu Chau and Whitehead, together with the reception centre at Green Island, are under the department's management.

Staff Training

The department's Staff Training Institute provides training for both new and serving officers. All recruit assistant officers and officers go through a 26-week orientation training programme, followed by a further five-week's training prior to completion of probation. The syllabus includes the relevant laws of Hong Kong, foot-drill, self-defence, weaponry, riot-drill, first-aid, criminology and penology, basic psychology and social work.

Development training and job-oriented courses are provided throughout the year for serving officers to update their professional knowledge, to prepare for promotion and equip selected officers for duties in specialised fields such as counselling, after-care, nursing, psychological services and physical education. Weekly in-service training is carried out within institutions to cater for the needs of individual institutions.

Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders, Hong Kong

The Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders, Hong Kong is a voluntary organisation founded-originally in 1957 as the Hong Kong Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. It provides care and supervision for ex-offenders who are given non-custodial sentences and

persons released from prisons. Services include casework, group work, counselling, hostel

accommodation, employment guidance, recreational activities as well as care for those who have a history of mental illness.

Civil Aid Services

The Civil Aid Services (CAS) is an auxiliary emergency organisation whose main role is to support other regular government services in any emergency situation. It is financed by government and has an establishment of 3 818 uniformed and disciplined adult volunteers, 3 232 cadets and 125 permanent staff.

Role and Responsibilities

With heavy emphasis on coping with natural disasters and performing civic duties, the tasks of CAS are numerous and far-reaching. The volunteers are trained to perform counter-disaster duties during tropical cyclones, when landslips and flooding occur, to search for and rescue persons trapped in collapsed buildings, to fight forest fires and to patrol country parks, to manage refugee camps, to combat oil pollution at sea, to assist the police in crowd control and incident management and to perform first-aid, casualty handling and evacuation. They also carry out difficult mountain rescue operations. On any weekend or public holiday it is normal for over 500 volunteers to be on duty. The Tactical Force is on a 90-minute call out throughout the year.

The service is heavily committed to performing civic duties in normal times. During the year, adult volunteers helped to organise and provide crowd control, communication and marshalling services in charity fund-raising walks, government campaigns, charity drives and at other public functions.

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