The Correctional Services Department has started introducing recommendations made by an inquiry board investigating the January 26 attack on a Stanley Prison officer.

The department said Commissioner of Correctional Services Pang Sung-yuen has accepted the recommendations which are now being implemented.

The board believes the weapon used was a piece of metal scrap from the Sign-Making Workshop and recommends that no more metal cutting is done inside Stanley Prison proper. The department has relocated the cutting section to a lower security institution.

Appropriate disciplinary action recommended

Inadequacies were found on the part of some staff in carrying out the required procedures for searching the assailant on his removal from his place of accommodation to the interview room.

The board recommends appropriate disciplinary action be taken against the staff concerned.

Officer training should be stepped up to enhance their skills and alertness in the use of handheld and doorway metal detectors to ensure more effective searches.

Procedures should be revised

It also recommends revision of the procedures governing the requirements for any interview of violence-prone prisoners, who request, or are required, to be interviewed with any official visitors, to be conducted, as far as possible, at the prisoner's accommodation or in a venue with physical barriers at a safe distance and with an adequate staff escort.

Mechanical restraints, such as handcuffs, will be applied when such violence-prone prisoners are moved within the institution.

Police are continuing their criminal investigation into the attack.