After-care Services

After-care supervision is provided to persons discharged from training,
detention and drug addiction treatment centres; young prisoners and those
discharged under the 'Post-release Supervision of Prisoners', 'Release
Under Supervision' and 'Pre-release Employment' Schemes. After-care
services aim at facilitating the ex-offenders' rehabilitation and reintegration
into the society. A sound rapport among the supervisees, their families
and the after-care staff is cultivated to help the supervisees tackle the
obstacles on their pathway of rehabilitation. Throughout the statutory
supervision period, regular contacts are maintained between the aftercare
staff and their respective supervisees to ensure that the supervisees settle
well into the community and comply with the conditions of the
supervision orders. Any breach of the supervision conditions may result in
the supervisee's being recalled for further period of training, treatment or
imprisonment.

Under the 'Release Under Supervision' and 'Pre-release Employment'
Schemes, and subject to the approval of the Release Under Supervision
Board, successful applicants may be discharged directly from prison for
after-care supervision or permitted to go out to work and live in a
designated hostel with after-care services. Both schemes aim at enabling
suitable, eligible and motivated prisoners to serve their sentences in an
open environment with supervision.

The Post-release Supervision of Prisoners Scheme, which came into
operation in late 1996, provides after-care supervision for certain
categories of adult prisoners to facilitate their rehabilitation and
reintegration into the society. Prisoners breaching the supervision
conditions may be recalled to serve the balance of 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 a determinate ones, be conditionally
released under supervision for a specific period to test their determination
and ability to lead a law-abiding life.

Success rates of the after-care programmes are measured by the
percentage of supervisees completing supervision without re-conviction
and, where applicable, remaining drug-free. In 1997, the success rates
were: 96 per cent for detention centre inmates; 59 per cent for male
training centre inmates; 91 per cent for female training centre inmates;
79 per cent for young male prisoners; 71 per cent for young female
prisoners; 67 per cent for male drug addiction treatment centre inmates;
77 per cent for female drug addiction treatment centre inmates;
100 per cent for the 'Release Under Supervision Scheme'; 100 per cent
for the 'Pre-release Employment Scheme'; and 99 per cent for the
'Post-release Supervision of Prisoners Scheme'. Altogether, there were
3 347 males and 411 females under active after-care supervision at the
end of 1997.

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