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Living Island Movement says government lied and deceived with its prison plan

The government has been accused of lies, deceit, pride and a host of other sins over its approach to the proposed development of a $12 billion 'super-jail' on an island off Lantau.

The Living Island Movement yesterday listed what it saw as 'the seven deadly sins' committed by the government with its proposal:

It had broken its post-July 1, 2003, promise to listen to the people;

Its consultation process, due to end tomorrow, was deceitful;

It planned to defile an environmental treasure;

It had lied about the reasons for the prison;

Pride prevented it acknowledging the project was a bad idea;

It would waste taxpayers' money;

It had understated the security risk;

The government, for its part, disagrees with the group's assessment.

'The proposal is not a fait accompli,' Deputy Secretary for Security Jennie Chok Pang Yuen-yee  said. 'This is a genuine consultation process.' She said people with a good idea would be listened to and their suggestions seriously considered.

However, she said the government had already done a rough evaluation of other possibilities and was convinced the super-jail - which would be built on reclaimed land and house up to 7,220 prisoners in multiple facilities - was the best way to go.

But Living Island Movement chairman Bob Bunker  said the public should have more of a say about what was the best option for dealing with its criminals.

'Our main thrust is that there has been no public consultation on the need for such a facility or on its location,' Mr Bunker said. 'The so-called public consultation we are having at the moment is basically 'tough luck, this is what you are going to get - what colour would you like it painted?''

He  accused the government of ignoring not only other sites but also other ways of addressing its current prison problems.

The current trend in the world was moving away from incarceration, and if Hong Kong followed suit, then the need for extra space might dry up.

'What is the point of spending $12 billion on a lump of concrete that you may not actually end up using very much?' he said.

But the government argues it needs the new jail because the prison occupancy rate is about 115 per cent and rising, and old facilities are long past their useful lifespans. Mrs Chok said they did not have a backup proposal if this one proved unsuccessful.

'I really do not want to elaborate on the other options,' she said. 'When we do something, we have to be positive about it.

'If the community as a whole, as represented by the vote in Legco, decides they do not want it, then we will have to reconsider.'

She said there were no other suitable sites in Hong Kong for the facility, or multiple smaller institutions. The only other short-listed one, Kong Nga Po, is near the border with the mainland and is not an option as it has 'great development potential for purposes that would facilitate economic integration'.

Mr Bunker disagreed and said that site, and others like it, should at least have been included in the consultation process.

'What we want is a broader discussion of whether we need this prison, whether we need one this big, and whether there aren't any other options,' he said.



Super-jail proposal's '7 deadly sins'