Long-form / 深度專題
懲教與監獄：由警察司管監倉到更生中心
Corrections and prisons: from a police-run jail to rehabilitation centres
香港嘅監獄係幾時脫離警隊、變成一個講「更生」嘅部門？
1841 年落成嘅域多利監獄，最初只係殖民管治嘅其中一件工具；1920 年監獄署脫離警察司署，1982 年再改名懲教署。呢篇沿住擠迫、騷亂、薪酬、戒毒同更生中心幾條線，說明「懲」同「教」係點樣來回拉扯，而每次改革都係由具體事故推出來。
約 5 分鐘 · 7 節 · 29 條時間線 · 3 份文獻
English
1. The prison service became independent before the police did
On 9 August 1841 Victoria Prison opened, the first modern prison in Hong Kong. Prison affairs sat under the police magistrate, and the superintendent also handled policing; corrections had no professional identity of its own.
In 1863, to relieve overcrowding at Victoria Prison, the authorities moored a converted ship at Stonecutters Island as a floating prison. The hulk was a stopgap that showed land and buildings could not keep up with prisoner numbers.
In 1864 the Central Police Station, the magistracy and Victoria Prison were formally established together on the same site, known as the Central Police Station Compound. Police, courts and custody on one plot showed that corrections remained an appendage of policing and justice. On 3 April 1897 the prison superintendent post was held concurrently by the police superintendent; only on 31 December 1920 did the Prisons Department separate from the police as an independent body responsible for prisons and prisoners.
2. Overcrowding, outlying islands and young offenders
In 1937 the Hong Kong Prison at Stanley opened with capacity for 1,559 prisoners, the most heavily guarded institution of its time, replacing Victoria Prison as the main prison. Outlying and remote sites thus became part of the system: distance bought separation.
In December 1946 the Prisons Department set up its first juvenile offenders’ institution for boys aged 8 to 16. This was the beginning of classification: young offenders were no longer held with adults.
In November 1958 Tai Lam Prison opened, mainly for prisoners with drug addiction. On 7 September 1961 the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers was founded and later ran a treatment centre on Shek Kwu Chau. Custodial facilities and voluntary treatment ran in parallel, forming two legs of Hong Kong’s response to addiction.
3. The 1950s and 1960s: wages and corporal punishment
From 1 May 1953 the Prisons Department operated a prisoner wage system, paying those who took part in work. Labour became a rewarded activity rather than pure punishment, and it hinted at the later logic of rehabilitation: prisoners can be brought into ordinary economic relations.
On 23 April 1966 a committee reviewing corporal punishment published its report, recommending an end to corporal punishment for children under 14 and to flogging of prisoners, tried for three years first. The trial period shows reform was incremental rather than a single stroke.
Read together, the two measures replaced blows with incentives. Daily management shifted from whether to beat prisoners to how to secure cooperation, but overcrowding and staffing did not disappear because a report said so.
4. The 1970s: riots and reorganisation
On 27 December 1970 about five hundred prisoners at Tong Fuk Prison on Lantau rioted at breakfast over mistreatment by officers, damaging cells and taking an officer hostage. Marine and riot police were deployed and senior prison staff negotiated; the disturbance ended only after a promise of a full investigation and better food.
On 12 April 1971 five young women escaped from Tai Lam Chung Prison, attacking a female officer who later died of her injuries. All were recaptured the same day and charged with murder. The case exposed staffing and design problems in the women’s institution.
On 19 April 1973 about 400 prisoners at Stanley Prison rioted over food and conditions, and the head of the prison service went to the site. On 20 June 1973 the Defence Secretary became the Secretary for Security, with policy coordination covering prisons; on 20 January 1975 Pak Sha Wan Prison at Clear Water Bay Road opened with two blocks, twelve dormitories and a maximum of six hundred places. In 1979 Chi Ma Wan Prison was also used to house refugees: police arrested 12 refugees and 26 crew members, and the rest were accommodated there.
5. 1982: from Prisons Department to Correctional Services
On 1 February 1982 the Prisons Department became the Correctional Services Department, with duties covering punishment, crime prevention and helping inmates reform. The change was more than a new name: the department described itself as a rehabilitation body and began accounting for results through recidivism, education and vocational training.
On 25 February 1980 Hong Kong hosted the first Conference of Asia-Pacific Correctional Administrators, a three-day meeting with delegates from 14 countries and territories. It placed the local service inside a regional professional network and made rehabilitation a comparable policy language.
At the same time the department was given non-correctional work. From 2 July 1982 Vietnamese refugees arriving in Hong Kong were required under an amendment in force that day to live in closed refugee centres run by the department. Officers thus managed prisoners and detainees at once, and the tension over resources and roles lasted until the refugee issue ended.
6. After 1987: supervised release and prisoners’ rights
In 1987 the Government legislated for supervised release and set up a Release Under Supervision Board. Prisoners serving at least two years could be released early if less than six months remained, provided they lived in government hostels under supervision; for sentences of at least three years, the Governor could order release after half the sentence or 20 months, whichever was longer, on the board’s advice.
On 20 May 1995, during an operation at a Vietnamese refugee camp, police fired 3,520 tear gas canisters in one day, injuring at least 27 boat people, while 168 correctional services officers and police were also hurt. The figures show that correctional staff had long been deployed well beyond prison walls.
On 2 November 1995 the Supreme Court ruled that removing horse-racing pages from newspapers subscribed by prisoners was unlawful, contrary to a 1991 human rights ordinance. The judgment put institutional order and prisoners’ rights on the same scale: administrative convenience cannot automatically override legal protection.
7. The 2000s: rehabilitation centres, a museum and a closing
On 4 June 2000 a riot at Hei Ling Chau Addiction Treatment Centre injured 33 inmates, 8 police officers and 24 correctional services staff. The centre mixed voluntary treatment with detention, and conflicts tended to arise where therapy and custody pulled apart.
On 11 May 2001 the SAR Government enacted the Rehabilitation Centres Ordinance to help offenders aged 14 to 21 reform; on 1 August 2002 the Lai Chi Rehabilitation Centre opened on Lantau and received its first inmate. The line runs back to the 1946 juvenile institution, but the emphasis moved from separation to short training under supervision.
On 1 November 2002 the Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum opened inside the staff training institute at Stanley. On 12 March 2006 Victoria Prison closed after more than 160 years of operation, with a closing ceremony held the same day. The oldest prison became a historical witness, and the 1864 compound of police station, magistracy and prison finally left productive use altogether.
Gaps
- Custody arrangements before 1841 have not been verified page by page; this dossier starts with the opening of Victoria Prison.
- No official year-by-year series of prisoner numbers or overcrowding exists, so the tightest period cannot be stated.
- The full investigation reports of the 1970s disturbances have not been read; only chronicle summaries are used.
- The number and yearly distribution of Vietnamese refugees held in correctional facilities are not covered; see the border and population dossier.
- Rebuilding and changes to institutions after 2006 have not been verified item by item.
