328 Public Order
Drug Addiction Treatment
The CSD runs a compulsory treatment programme for convicted drug addicts, which provides the courts with an alternative to imprisonment. Male and female inmates are accommodated at Hei Ling Chau Addiction Treatment Centre and its Annexe respectively. Young addicts aged between 14 and 20 are accommodated separately from the adults. The programme includes two to 12 months of in-centre treatment, followed by one-year statutory supervision.
Medical Services
Every institution has a hospital to provide inmates with basic medical treatment, health care and dental services. Inmates who need specialist treatment are referred to visiting specialists or specialist outpatient clinics in public hospitals. Pregnant prisoners are referred to public hospitals for delivery and related services.
Psychological Services
Psychological services are provided to inmates and prisoners to improve their psychological well-being and to change their offending behaviour. Clinical psychologists and trained officers provide special treatment programmes for inmates such as sex offenders, violent offenders, inmates with addiction problems and young offenders.
They also provide assessment reports to the courts, review boards and institutional management on request. CSD took steps during the year to further improve the running of rehabilitative services provided for offenders after discharge. It has adopted an empirically-based protocol and clinical measures for assessing the risk of re-offending after discharge.
Supervision Services
Statutory supervision is provided to discharged young prisoners, people discharged from training, rehabilitation, detention and drug addiction treatment centres, and prisoners discharged under the Release Under Supervision, Pre-release Employment and Post-release Supervision Schemes, as well as prisoners discharged under a conditional release order or post-release supervision order. The aim of supervision services is to help ex-offenders reintegrate into society. Any breach of the supervision conditions may result in these ex-inmates being recalled for a further period of training, treatment or imprisonment.
During the year, 2 646 offenders were discharged under supervision. They, together with those discharged in previous years and who had yet to complete their supervision period numbered 2 787 people under CSD's supervision at the end of 2008. During the year, 1038 people were recalled for breach of supervision conditions.
Community Support
Community acceptance and support are of paramount importance to an offender's rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The Committee on Community Support for Rehabilitated Offenders is a non-statutory advisory body appointed by the Commissioner of Correctional Services to advise on rehabilitation
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