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Punishment and Imprisonment

In the 1840s, a new model for building prisons was implemented in Britain. Cells were designed as small and individual ones, reflecting the new concept of punishing offenders in the community at that time, i.e. separate confinement. During that time, the British society generally believed that offenders could concentrate and reflect on their wrongdoings through separate confinement, hard labour, dietary punishment and religious persuasion, so that they could return to the right path. At that time, such concept was put into practice in British prison construction and spatial arrangement. Although this prison model was widely popular in Britain and other countries, it was not fully adopted in prison design in Hong Kong, which was the then British colony. Such phenomenon should be attributed to the discrimination against Chinese by the colonial government. Chinese were regarded as inferior, so it was considered that separate confinement would have no effect on Chinese offenders at all. Instead, severe punishment would be useful and effective in deterring them from breaking the law again. Such belief was embedded in Hong Kong's penal system in the 19th century and was reflected in the prison architecture.

When it comes to “severe punishment”, corporal punishment may come first and flogging should be the most common among all. Flogging refers to the beating of the buttocks of a prisoner with a rattan cane. During the early years of the establishment of the colonial government, the number of prisoners in Hong Kong was too huge to be accommodated in prisons. Therefore, corporal punishment in lieu of imprisonment was introduced by Britain in order to ease the burden on prisons. Besides, flogging was used to curb the increasing abduction activities. It was added to the punishments for convicts of abduction to create a deterrent effect.

Under the Prison Rules and Regulations of June 1857, a prisoner would get 15 strokes at most after he was certified by a medical officer that he was fit to receive flogging. The earliest Flogging Ordinance was enacted in 1868, which empowered the court to impose flogging on kidnappers in sentencing. Amid changing times, crimes leading to the punishment of flogging continued to increase, and the rules governing the administering of flogging became more detailed. According to the relevant legislation, flogging was imposed on male prisoners only. Flogging imposed on prisoners aged 17 or above could not be more than 18 strokes, a maximum of 12 for those aged between 14 and 16, and a maximum of six for those aged below 14. Flogging should be carried out within six weeks after the final verdict by the court, with all strokes being performed in one go. The Superintendent should attend the administering of flogging and record the time of flogging, the number of strokes and the instructions given by the medical officer, etc.

Flogging stands were introduced to Hong Kong by Captain William Caine, the first Chief Magistrate and the head of the Police and the Gaol. There were large and small racks. Flogging imposed by the court should be administered using the large rack. A large flogging stand was once placed at Victoria Prison, and then moved to Stanley Prison after its commissioning in 1937. It was installed next to the execution chamber of H Block of Stanley Prison until flogging was abolished in 1990.