Police are improving privacy and hygiene in police station cells after a social welfare group said existing conditions could be a breach of human rights.
The work, to be completed next year, includes raising the height of cubicle walls so prisoners do not have to go to the toilet in front of other detainees, and providing toothbrushes and towels.
The Security Bureau said ceiling fans would also be installed in the corridors of 24 stations that lacked them, and in-cell toilet flushing would be provided at 15 where officers now flush them from outside.
Conditions, described by one former inmate as 'dirty' and 'smelly' came to public attention last year when the Society for Community Organisation (Soco) said it was considering a judicial review to see if they infringed human rights law.
Of the city's 64 police stations, 33 have a total of 380 cells and about 1,250 bed spaces.
One asylum seeker said yesterday he was not treated like a human being during a six-day detention in a 100 sq ft cell at Yuen Long police station with nine other people in 2008.
'The in-cell toilet was very smelly,' he said. 'No water, no shower and no pillow were provided - only a blanket which was extremely dirty and had fleas on it.'