VIOLENCE involving inmates at a Lantau jail has sparked a wide-ranging review of the Justices' of the Peace system which monitors prison operations.
The move was announced yesterday, two days after an official report ruled guards were right to beat inmates during a violent clash between local and mainland prisoners in Ma Po Ping Prison last month.
The internal report's conclusion - compiled by Correctional Services Department [CSD] investigators - that CSD officers were right to use excessive force to quell the violence, provoked fury from JPs Emily Lau Wai-hing and Paul Chan Kam-cheung.
The pair paid a surprise visit to the jail days after the clash and interviewed dozens of prisoners who claimed guards went over the top.
But Security Bureau and Home Affairs Bureau chiefs have refused to consider the establishment of a new, fully independent prisons inspectorate, claiming it would be both 'uneccessary and a duplication of existing procedures'.
Details of the government review emerged at a forum yesterday debating the July 27 incident, which injured 19 inmates and three CSD officers.