AFTER MORE THAN a year of delay and deliberation, the Legislative Council's security panel is poised to consider proposals for a 'superjail' to house the majority of Hong Kong's inmates in a single facility. Although the Legco committee is to discuss the plan, there's no guarantee it will take action. Further dithering might torpedo a proposal which could ease the growing squeeze in our prisons.
Correctional Services officers argue passionately for the large facility, which would house about 12,000 convicts. Behind escape-proof walls, there would be up to 20 self-contained compounds, holding prisoners segregated by differing age levels and security classifications.
Commissioner for Correctional Services Benny Ng Ching-kwok has attempted, at two meetings of the Legco security panel, to allay fears that a large number of potentially violent criminals in one place could be explosive. He has staked his considerable law-enforcement reputation (he was a senior assistant commissioner of police before transferring to the prison service in 1998) on the proposition that it would not be.
Sophisticated planning would see self-contained individual institutions, with inmates in one out of sight and sound of detainees in another. It would be an enlarged version of the system at Stanley Prison, where three separate institutions now hold 3,000 prisoners.
The superjail concept has been discussed for several years. It is now crunch time - a decision must be reached. If it is positive, planning could start at the most logical site, at the village of Kong Nga Po near Tak Wu Ling. There is ample space on abandoned farmland inside this closed frontier zone.
The urgency for a superjail is due to the constantly rising tide of people being convicted. There are now more than 12,000 inmates in 24 penal institutions. Overcrowding is most serious in jails designed to house the toughest convicts and in female prisons, which have 34 per cent more inmates than the intended maximum. Forecasts for 2024 predict 15,000 inmates in the prison system.