ENG-2005 — Page 410

356 Public Order

The Prisoners' Education Trust Fund, set up with charitable donations in 1995, provides financial assistance to prisoners in educational pursuits in the form of grants to cover course or examination fees and reference material expenses.

Vocational Training

To help young offenders reintegrate smoothly into society as law-abiding citizens, the department provides vocational training programmes for inmates aged under 21 to enable them to learn job skills, obtain accreditation and develop work habits.

The CSD offers various training courses that match the inmates' learning ability and needs. The vocational training courses are market orientated to allow the inmates a better opportunity for employment upon discharge. Apart from courses helping inmates to obtain City & Guilds vocational qualifications, there are training courses preparing inmates for trade tests or examinations conducted by the Vocational Training Council, the Construction Industry Training Authority and the Clothing Industry Training Authority.

Correctional Services Industries

The Correctional Services Industries provide work to adult prisoners as required by law. Employment keeps all convicted inmates, except those who are physically unfit for work, purposefully and gainfully occupied. Through work, prisoners develop good working habits and a sense of responsibility, build up self-confidence, learn how to work as a team and acquire the basic skills for different trades.

In 2005, a daily average of about 6 992 prisoners engaged in industrial work. Workshops in penal institutions provide a wide range of goods and services mainly for government departments and public organisations including government furniture and staff uniforms, including leather belts, briefcases and shoes, hospital linen, litter containers and traffic signs. There are also pre-cast concrete products such as paving blocks, slabs, cable covers and kerb stones for highways and infrastructure projects. Prisoners provide laundry services for hospitals, clinics and the ambulance depots, and they bind books for public libraries, undertake printing work and make file jackets and envelopes for some government departments. Production and services provided by the Correctional Services Industries amounted to the equivalent of $462 million in commercial value in 2005.

Prisoners' Welfare Services

Prisoners' Welfare Officers in the CSD look after the welfare of detainees and prisoners, and help them to deal with personal problems and difficulties arising from detention or imprisonment. Apart from conducting individual and group counselling sessions, they assist in the establishment and running of hobby groups. They also organise activities such as pre-release reintegration orientation courses, meetings with the prisoners' families and with the supply of information on community

resources.