|
|
 |
| |
The Rehabilitation Division is committed to facilitating the reintegration of offenders into society as law-abiding citizens through the provision of suitable rehabilitative services. In the twelfth year of our decade of work, we continued our on-going initiatives and introduced enhanced services.
During 2009, we continued to implement the Risks and Needs Assessment and Management Protocol to identify prisoners prone to custodial and re-offending risks, and to deliver rehabilitative programmes matching the needs of inmates and young prisoners. This will be extended to adult prisoners in January 2010. We have set up an independent Treatment Advisory Panel to regularly review the rehabilitative services for sex offenders. For service enhancement, we will develop a comprehensive battery of assessment tools for adult and young sex offenders to accurately understand their re-offending risks and treatment needs. We also continued our collaboration with renowned academics to develop tools for assessing re-offending risks and treatment needs of adult violent offenders and a gender-specific rehabilitative programme for women offenders.
In February 2009, we transferred the Correctional Services Industries (CSI) from the Operations Division to the Rehabilitation Division and integrated it with the Vocational Training Unit, renamed the new combined unit as the Industries and Vocational Training Section. We took steps to increase the element of vocational training in several industries so that more prisoners could have the opportunity to receive vocational training and attain external accreditation and recognised qualifications.
Services for ethnic minority prisoners were further improved including organising Cantonese hobby classes for them. For local prisoners, they were provided with enhanced pre-release preparation which also encouraged them to seek help from the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention, Hong Kong and other Non-Government Organisations after release. A campaign to promote a “Healthier, Smoke-free Life” among adult prisoners was launched, and smoking counselling and cessation courses were run for those who wish to quit smoking.
To tie in with the implementation of new senior secondary education in 2009, we have strengthened education support for young offenders under the new curriculum.
We have continued to launch our enhanced public education initiatives for youth under the Rehabilitation Pioneer Project which focuses and disseminates the messages of crime prevention and offender rehabilitation to young people.
We will continue our publicity work on the rehabilitation front in 2010 with a view to sustaining public support and further enhancing community involvement. The highlights are a NGO forum with NGO representatives in January 2010, a TV variety show in February 2010, an “Options in Life” student forum in March 2010, and a symposium on employment of rehabilitated offenders in June 2010. We will also continue to improve the services for offenders and rehabilitated persons. A detailed account of the rehabilitative services provided by the Division covering assessment, welfare and counselling, psychological services, education and supervision services, as well as our efforts in promoting community acceptance of rehabilitated persons is set out in this Chapter.
| LEE Sheung |
| Assistant Commissioner (Rehabilitation) |
|
Pre-sentence Assessment Services
Pre-sentence assessment is our first intervention in the rehabilitation of an offender as such assessment, including interviewing the offender, compiling a report on him, and finally advising the court as to his suitability for one of our rehabilitative programmes, is done before the offender is sentenced and treatment actually starts. We believe that by giving an offender the most appropriate treatment measure at the outset, it will help maximise his chance of rehabilitation and also save social resources in the long run. During the year, 18 assessment staff handled a total of 5 132 cases. |
Young Offender Assessment Panel
The Young Offender Assessment Panel is formed to assist courts in the sentencing of young male offenders aged 14 to 24 and young female offenders aged 14 to 20. This administrative body is composed of professionals from the CSD and the Social Welfare Department. It interviews all the young offenders referred by the court, forms a coordinated view, and makes a recommendation as to the most appropriate treatment programme for the case. In 2009, the Panel handled 320 referrals, of which 88.4% were accepted. |
Welfare and Counselling Services
We render welfare and counselling services to offenders right from their admission to correctional institutions, when they may be facing the most difficult time during custody. The main objectives of the services are to cater for offenders' welfare needs, help them deal with their adjustment problems, address their offending behaviour and provide various rehabilitation programmes to meet their rehabilitative needs. Towards the end of their term, we will prepare them for release by providing them with pre-release counselling services and, if necessary, referring them to appropriate social welfare organisations for follow-up support and services. In 2009, we conducted 130 682 individual counselling sessions, 1 110 group counselling sessions, and 1 840 pre-release re-integration orientation courses. |
Psychological Services
A team of clinical psychologists and departmental officers trained in psychological work help inmates change their offending behaviour and promote their psychological well-being. In 2009, 33 294 counselling sessions were conducted for this purpose. At the same time, 590 assessment reports were prepared for the court and related review boards to facilitate decisions on the rehabilitation of offenders.
We also continued our efforts in developing on-going programmes targeting offending behaviours. These included the Offending Behaviour Programme and Inmate-Parent Programme for young offenders, Violence Prevention Programme for adult offenders, the Evaluation and Treatment Programme for sex offenders and substance abuse treatment programmes for inmates with substance abuse problem.
To pave the way for an empirically based offender management and rehabilitation system, the Department introduced in 2006 a "Risks and Needs Assessment and Management Protocol for Offenders" for evaluating offenders' re-offending risk and rehabilitative needs. The Department took forward the Protocol by phases, having regard to availability of resources, and started to conduct risks and needs assessment of all local inmates (i.e. persons admitted to Training Centres, Detention Centre, Rehabilitation Centres and Drug Addiction Treatment Centres) and prisoners with sentences of two years or above upon their admission to correctional institutions and to conduct regular review of such assessment subsequently. In January and April 2007, the Department implemented programme matching for inmates and young prisoners respectively as part of the Protocol. The Department will extend risks and needs assessment to local adult prisoners with sentences of 12 months or above and will further extend programme matching to local adult prisoners with effect from January 2010.
Specialised clinical measures for assessing the re-offending risks and rehabilitative needs for violent offenders, sex offenders and young offenders were also completed. Preparation was underway in cooperation with renowned academics to develop risks / needs assessment tools for adult violent offenders and a gender-specific risks and needs programme for women offenders. |
Education
The Education Unit provides half-day compulsory education programmes for young offenders under the age of 21 and guidance to adult offenders who participate in educational studies on a voluntary basis. Besides general subjects, practical courses such as computer-related and commercial subjects are also taught by qualified teachers.
To enhance language and computer education for both young and adult inmates, we have continued to upgrade the existing facilities and added new equipment for IT learning. We have set up computer rooms and multi-media learning centres in all young offender institutions and in the majority of the adult offender institutions. These include the establishment of a new computer room in Pik Uk Prison in November 2009, and a new Multimedia Learning Centre in Lai Chi Rehabilitation Centre in July 2009. The computers and accessories of the Multimedia Learning Centre in Cape Collinson Correctional Institution were replaced in March 2009. A total of 702 computers have been installed for offenders as at December 31, 2009, including 356 in adult offender institutions and 346 in young offender institutions.
In 2009, inmates attempted a total of 1 058 public examination papers and the overall passing rate was 67.5%. The examination results are shown in Appendix 8. As at December 31, 2009, 204 prisoners enrolled in distance learning courses of degree, diploma or certificate levels run by the Open University of Hong Kong and other tertiary education organisations. Needy prisoners may apply for financial assistance for various educational pursuits from the Prisoners' Education Trust Fund, the New Life Foundation and the Prisoners’ Education Subsidy Fund. During the year, the total financial assistance provided by these three avenues amounted to $523,129.
In order to enhance the employability of adult prisoners upon their release, the Department received sponsorship from the Employees Retraining Board for ten Information Technology classes and three Workplace Putonghua classes. The Information Technology classes were organised in Pak Sha Wan Correctional Institution, Shek Pik Prison, Ma Po Ping Prison and Tong Fuk Centre, Tung Tau Correctional Institution, Pik Uk Prison and Stanley Prison. As at December 31, 2009, four classes had been completed, four will be completed in February and March 2010 and two will commence in January and February 2010. The Workplace Putonghua classes were organised in Tung Tau Correctional Institution, Lai Sun Correctional Institution and Lai Chi Kok Correctional Institution, of which one class had been completed, one class will be completed in March 2010 and one class will commence in February 2010.
To encourage adult offenders to pursue studies voluntarily after work, we deploy volunteer tutors to run various education classes and interests groups for them. In 2009, a total of 130 classes were run by volunteers of the CSD Rehabilitation Volunteer Group for 1 324 adult offenders. Furthermore, to arouse inmates' interest in tertiary education and to encourage them to pursue continuing education, we continued to take forward a project named "Rainbow Reading Award Scheme" in Ma Po Ping Prison and Tong Fuk Centre and a series of talks under the theme "A Taste of University" in Tai Lam Centre for Women. The reading scheme aims to raise prisoners' educational and intellectual standards. It was carried out in Ma Po Ping Prison and Tong Fuk Centre from December 2008 to November 2009 with 60 participants. A fresh round of the reading scheme will commence in Tung Tau Correctional Institution in January 2010 and will be concluded by the second half of 2010. The series of talks in Tai Lam Centre for Women was conducted from December 2009 to March 2010 with 26 participants. We also cooperated with the Open University of Hong Kong to provide learning support for inmate students through counselling and visits by volunteer staff and tutors of the University. |
Supervision Services
The Department provides, through its supervision staff, statutory supervision for young prisoners, persons released from detention, rehabilitation, training and drug addiction treatment centres, and adult prisoners released under various supervision schemes. The service is an integral part of the correctional and rehabilitation programmes to assist offenders in re-integrating into society and leading a decent and law-abiding life upon release.
In the interests of an effective supervision, supervision staff strive to foster mutual trust with inmates and their families/significant others while the inmates are in custody. They also give inmates appropriate support and guidance to help them adapt to the institutional programme and make them aware of their inadequacies and the difficulties ahead.
With the help of the computerised Rehabilitation Programme Management System, supervision staff assess the re-offending risks and rehabilitative needs of all inmates and local young prisoners, and conduct regular reviews on rehabilitative needs of each inmate and young prisoner. They also run structured social reintegration programmes for target offenders in inmate centres who are assessed to be having moderate to high risks and needs. These programmes focus on employment guidance needs, family/marital needs, associates/social functioning needs and community functioning needs.
Through regular contacts and visits, supervision staff will guide and assist inmates discharged under supervision for integration. On the other hand, a breach of the supervision conditions may result in the supervisee being recalled back to an institution for further training. In 2009, 952 recall orders were issued. |
Supervision Schemes for Prisoners
Under the Release Under Supervision Scheme and the Pre-release Employment Scheme, successful applicants may be discharged directly from prison for statutory supervision before the end of their imprisonment or released to live in a hostel where they are provided with supervision services and permitted to go out to work in day time. Both schemes are aimed at giving an opportunity for suitable, eligible and motivated prisoners to serve their sentences in an open environment with supervision. Those supervisees who have breached the supervision requirements may be subject to re-imprisonment for the remainder of their sentences.
The Post-Release Supervision of Prisoners Scheme provides statutory supervision for certain categories of adult prisoners to facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Those supervisees who have breached the supervision conditions may be recalled to serve the balance of their sentence equivalent to their unexpired supervision period.
Under the Conditional Release Scheme, prisoners with indeterminate sentences may, before the Long-term Prison Sentences Review Board makes recommendations as to whether their indeterminate sentences should be converted to determinate ones, be conditionally released under supervision for a specific period to test their determination and ability to lead a law-abiding life. Prisoners with indeterminate sentences having been converted to determinate ones may also be ordered by the Board to be placed under post-release supervision under the Supervision After Release Scheme.
As at December 31, 2009, a total of 2 952 persons were under active statutory supervision. A breakdown of the caseload and statistics on success rates is in Appendix 10. |
Half-way House Programme
The Half-way House Programme is an extension of the rehabilitative effort sustained in detention centre, training centres, drug addiction treatment centres or prisons. Following release, supervisees in need of a period of transitional adjustment may reside in a half-way house to which they can return at night after work or school. There are three half-way houses run by the Department, namely Phoenix House, Pelican House and Bauhinia House.
The programme seeks to cultivate a sense of self-discipline and positive working habits in a structured and supportive environment. Emphasis is placed on behavioural performance, inter-personal relationship and family support. Individual and group counselling sessions, in-house recreation and outdoor activities and community services are organised to strengthen residents' civic and moral awareness. Leave of absence is generally granted on weekends and public holidays to facilitate social reintegration. In 2009, a total of 277 residents were admitted to the three half-way houses. |
Non-government Organisations (NGOs)
To utilise social resources for rehabilitative work effectively, we have been working closely with NGOs in the provision of services to inmates/prisoners and rehabilitated offenders. During the year, more than 2 000 volunteers from 70 NGOs were actively involved in a variety of services ranging from the provision of counselling services and religious sacraments, to the organisation of cultural ventures and recreational projects in correctional institutions. |
Reaching out to the Community
 |
Community members visit inmates and their young children.
|
| |
Community acceptance and support is of paramount importance to the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into society. Comprising community leaders, employers, education workers, professionals and representatives of non-government organisations and government departments, the Committee on Community Support for Rehabilitated Offenders (CCSRO) advises the Commissioner on rehabilitation programmes, and reintegration and publicity strategies. The terms of reference and membership of the Committee are in Appendix 11.
Apart from the CCSRO, the Department continues its good partnership with community organisations, merchants and trade associations to take forward joint projects for the benefit of offenders and rehabilitated persons. These organisations include, among others, the Care of Rehabilitated Offenders Association, International CICA Association of Esthetics, Hong Kong Hair & Beauty Merchants Association, Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society, Kowloon, Yuen Yuen Institute, Merchants Support for Rehabilitated Offenders Committee, Yan Oi Tong, Fung Ying Seen Koon, Sik Sik Yuen, Tung Sin Tan, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs and Zonta Clubs. A list of the donations by and/or collaborative projects with these organisations and individuals is at Appendix 13. |
Publicity Activities
To help the community better understand the needs and problems of rehabilitated offenders and to appeal for public support for them, the Department has launched a series of publicity activities since 1999. Major activities in 2009, including certificate presentation ceremonies, award presentation ceremony for Volunteers of CSD Rehabilitation Volunteer Group, joint community involvement activities with various District Fight Crime Committees, Radio and TV Announcements in the Public Interest, Appointment of Rehabilitation Ambassadors, distribution of DVD on TV docu-drama "The Road Back V", activities for students and youth under the Rehabilitation Pioneer Project and NGO Service Day, are in Appendix 12. |
Rehabilitation Pioneer Project
For more focused development and to further spread the crime prevention and offender rehabilitation messages among the youth, CSD has, from September 2008 onwards, adopted a coordinated approach to implement enhanced public education initiatives under a new project entitled "Rehabilitation Pioneer Project", covering school talks, visits to correctional institutions under the Personal Encounter with Prisoners Scheme and the Green Haven Scheme *, visits to Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum # and Options in Life Student Forum.
(* Visits under the Personal Encounter with Prisoners Scheme and the Green Haven Scheme were suspended between 15 June and 30 November 2009 to prevent spread of Human Swine Influenza.)
(# Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum was closed for renovation with effect from 21 September 2009 and will reopen on 29 January 2010.)
|
School Talks
School talks are organised for schools or youth organisations. The purpose of these educational talks are to provide students / youth with basic information on the criminal justice system in Hong Kong and CSD's custodial and rehabilitative services, and to help simulate them to think about the consequences of committing crime. A total of 192 talks were arranged for 36 566 students / youth in 2009. |
Personal Encounter with Prisoners Scheme
The Department runs the Personal Encounter with Prisoners Scheme as part of the community's fight crime campaign. Youths and students visit one of the several designated institutions to meet with reformed prisoners in experience sharing sessions. The purpose is to help prevent delinquency through the deepening of participants' understanding of the untoward consequences of committing a crime. A total of 1 743 young people and students visited the institutions under the Scheme in 2009. |
Green Haven Scheme
The Department started the Green Haven Scheme in January 2001 to promote the anti-drug message and the importance of environmental protection among young people. Participants meet with young inmates of drug addiction treatment centre to gain insight into the detrimental effects of drug abuse. They also take part in a tree planting ceremony to indicate their support for rehabilitated persons and environmental protection, and vow to stay away from drugs. During the year, a total of 15 visits were arranged for 281 participants.
|
Visit to Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum
Visits to Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum are organised for students/youth with a view to fostering their understanding of the development of correctional services particularly the rehabilitative services and various publicity initiatives to enlist public support for offender rehabilitation. A total of 39 visits were arranged for 887 participants in 2009. |
Options in Life Student Forum
To demonstrate the willingness of rehabilitated persons in making contribution to society, the Department conducted from late 2003 to 2005 a round of district-based student forums in all 18 districts to provide opportunities for secondary students and rehabilitated offenders to interact and discuss on the serious consequences of crime. A total of 20 student forums were organised with 3 300 participants. In line with the Department's community involvement strategy, arrangements have been made for similar forums to be run by 12 NGOs since 2006, with the necessary support and steer provided by CSD. |
CSD Rehabilitation Volunteer Group
In order to broaden the scope of public involvement, the Department has formed the CSD Rehabilitation Volunteer Group since early 2004. The Group aims to supplement the services of the Department particularly in terms of addressing the reformative, emotional, educational, social and recreational needs of inmates. Apart from conducting interest groups on such topics as languages, computer studies and other cultural pursuits for offenders in various correctional institutions, volunteers of the Group also assist in other areas of rehabilitation work, such as public education activities for promoting community acceptance of rehabilitated persons. During 2009, about 150 volunteers of the Group were actively engaged in providing services for offenders. |
|
|
)
)
)
)
)