A series of charity events will be held March 11 to 19 to mark the decommissioning of 160-year-old Victoria Prison, Hong Kong's first jail.

The Victoria Prison Decommissioning Open Days, jointly run by the Correctional Services Department and the Community Chest, include open days on March 11, 18 and 19, performances and a farewell parade on the 12th, and the Jail House Rock show on the 17th and 18th.

Jail unveiled: Old staff uniforms, an historical journal from the 1940s and the Cat-of-nine tails whip are some of the items on display at the Victoria Prison Decommissioning Open Days.

$20 donation

During the open days, in which admission will be $20 donated to the Chest, cells will be opened for touring from 10am to 5pm. Items from the Correctional Services Museum, department vehicles and products from the correctional services industries will be displayed.

Department officers dressed in historic uniforms will show the changes in attire over the years, when the former Prisons Department was renamed the Correctional Services Department in 1982.

There will also be a display of some artifacts, such as a model for the execution chamber. Execution was the top penalty for major crimes like murder, kidnapping leading to death and piracy, until 1993 when capital punishment was formally abolished.

In 1990 the Corporal Punishment Ordinance was repealed. Visitors will see records of corporal punishment as ordered by judges from 1946 to 1977. A whip known as the Cat-of-nine tails, used for corporal punishment, will be on display.

Rich value

Commissioner of Correctional Services Pang Sung-yuen said among the documents on display will be a night journal of the prison, which had data that survived World War II unscathed. The entry on the front side of paper covered December 14, 1941; but the entry on the back side of paper covered June 26, 1946, representing a void of four-and-a-half years, which was mostly the Japanese military occupation of Hong Kong.

"From the document you can see Victoria Prison was recommissioned in mid-1946 after the war. All in all, the night journal is not to be missed for its rich historic value," he said.

The jail, in use since 1841, was long the centre of the local prison system and a testimony to the evolution of Hong Kong's correctional services until last December when it ceased operation. Before the establishment of Stanley Prison in 1937, Victoria Prison was Hong Kong's centre of justice and law enforcement.

Mr Pang hopes the event will help stimulate a keener interest in correctional services and rehabilitation of offenders, while also aiding charity.