Prison position:
Commissioner of Correctional Services Sin Yat-kin delivers the Correctional Services Department year-end review.
Overcrowding relief set for prisons
January 18, 2012
The Correctional Services Department will merge and redevelop its facilities to ease overcrowding.
Speaking at the department’s year-end review today, Commissioner of Correctional Services Sin Yat-kin said overcrowding remains a problem in reception centres, despite a fall in prisoner numbers.
The average daily penal population last year was 9,658. The occupancy rate was 87%, down 4% on 2010.
Tai Lam Centre for Women and Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre have overcrowding rates of 36% and 12%.
Mr Sin said the department will redevelop Tai Lam Centre for Women to provide 108 more penal places in 2016.
It will also merge Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre with the adjacent Lai Chi Kok Correctional Institution to alleviate overcrowding.
When asked if pregnant Mainland women were committing crimes to be jailed to secure Hong Kong right of abode for their children, Mr Sin said of the 19 pregnant inmates in Hong Kong, eight were Mainlanders. He said he saw no rising trend in their numbers.
Last year there were 499 cases of violent acts in penal institutions, with 21 correctional officers assaulted.
