Record of the 23rd APCCA
Appendix H
APCCA Secretariat Report
(October 2002 – November 2003)
for submission to the 23rd APCCA
Summary
1. Established after the 21st APCCA, the APCCA Secretariat is co-hosted by the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (HKCSD) and the Singapore Prisons Department (SPD) for a term of two years, i.e., from 2001/2002 to 2002/2003. This is the second year for the Secretariat to report its work to APCCA.
2. Shortly after the 22nd APCCA at which the APCCA Joint Declaration was adopted, the APCCA Secretariat issued a letter to those jurisdictions that used to attend APCCA’s annual conferences but were not present at the 22nd APCCA, inviting them to become parties to the Joint Declaration. In response to the letter, five more jurisdictions signed to accept the Joint Declaration and become APCCA members. They were Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania of Australia, Macao (China) and Kiribati.
3. HKCSD also assisted Professor David Biles – Rapporteur of 22nd APCCA to finalise the report of the 22nd APCCA.
4. HKCSD continued to produce correctional statistics collected from correctional jurisdictions within the Asia-Pacific Region for the reference of this conference. HKCSD would like to thank Northern Territory of Australia for their assistance in consolidating the statistics for Australia.
5. A 12-page newsletter was produced and distributed to APCCA members by SPD in June 2003. SPD is currently producing the December issue.
6. SPD had taken up the maintenance and supervision of the APCCA website since October 2002. The website had been redesigned and kept up-to-date with newest information including the latest issue of APCCA newsletter, the contact list of APCCA members and participating jurisdictions, etc.
7. The Secretariat takes this opportunity to thank all APCCA members for their contribution to and support for its work in the past year.
APCCA Secretariat Report
(October 2002 –November 2003)
for submission to the 23rd APCCA
This report informs APCCA members of the work done by the APCCA Secretariat within the period from October 2002 up to November 2003.
2. The APCCA Joint Declaration provides for the establishment of the APCCA Secretariat to provide support services to APCCA and to its Governing Board. The main duties of the Secretariat are to serve as a focal contact point between APCCA and its members/other individuals and organisations; produce the APCCA newsletter and operate the APCCA website; implement the resolutions and exercise such powers as authorised by the Annual Conference and/or the Governing Board; and serve as the APCCA Fund Administrator.
3. The Hong Kong Correctional Services Department (HKCSD) and the Singapore Prisons Department (SPD) were appointed by APCCA to co-serve as the APCCA Secretariat at the 21st Annual Conference held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2001 for a term of 2 years, i.e., from 2001/2002 to 2002/2003.
4. Based on a cooperative agreement between the two departments, the HKCSD undertakes general administrative duties and liaison work whereas the SPD is responsible for APCCA newsletter publishing and the supervision and maintenance of the APCCA website.
5. Shortly after the 22nd APCCA at which the APCCA Joint Declaration was adopted, HKCSD issued a letter to those jurisdictions that used to attend APCCA’s annual conferences but were not present at the 22nd APCCA to inform them of the latest developments of APCCA and invite them to become parties to the Joint Declaration. Positive responses were received from Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania of Australia, Kiribati and Macao (China) and they had become members of APCCA on signing the Joint Declaration.
6. Due to communication problems, Professor David Biles – the 22nd APCCA Rapporteur, was unable to engage the host of 22nd APCCA in finalising the 22nd conference report. In light of this, HKCSD being a member of the APCCA Secretariat, assisted in making necessary amendments to the draft report based on the comments of Professor Biles and those he received from Dr Neil Morgan – the Co-rapporteur and the participating countries. Formatted by CSD, the finalised report was sent to the host of 22nd APCCA on 1 April 2003. An electronic copy was also sent to SPD for posting to the APCCA website.
7. HKCSD continued to produce correctional statistics collected from correctional jurisdictions within the Asia-Pacific for the reference of this conference. HKCSD would like to thank Northern Territory of Australia for their assistance in consolidating the statistics for Australia.
8. The APCCA Newsletter is a bi-annual publication for the purpose of sharing and learning amongst correctional counterparts in the Asia-Pacific Region. SPD is privileged to take up the production work since assuming duties as a member of the APCCA Secretariat and had developed its in-house capabilities for the task. The production was carried out at the Changi Women’s Prison, where women inmates were trained in knowledge and skills on the entire process of the newsletter production, ranging from design, layout, printing, binding and dissemination, under the supervision of prison officers. SPD recognises that inmates are part of its value chain and such opportunities can help them to develop their skills further.
9. The June issue of this year had been distributed to APCCA members and published on the APCCA website. SPD is currently producing the December issue. Beside articles from SPD, many members had responded to SPD’s calls for articles for the newsletter. SPD had also received articles regularly from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UNAFEI, Thailand and Hong Kong. The good response from members had contributed to a good 12-page newsletter production for the past issues.
10. The Secretariat looks forward to the continued support of the APCCA members in the area of article contributions. We hope many will leverage on this newsletter to share their knowledge and expertise in their Service.
11. Currently, the APCCA fund covers the costs for purchasing printing papers and postage charges for distribution of newsletters. The other overheads, including the cost of inmate labour were absorbed by SPD.
12. To facilitate better sharing of information amongst members and promote a wider exposure of the APCCA to the global community, the APCCA Internet website was set up in November 1999 and maintained by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) on behalf of APCCA.
13. With the setting up of the APCCA Secretariat in 2001, SPD was given the privilege to maintain and supervise the APCCA website from October 2002 to December 2003. Since then, SPD has continued the good practice of timely updates (e.g. the publication of the 22nd APCCA Report, Broadcast of the 23rd APCCA, publication of the 23rd Discussion Guide and updates of the contact information of APCCA members and participating jurisdictions) as previously provided by AIC. The APCCA website has kept the APCCA members as well as diverse groups of interested audience informed and updated on issues/activities pertaining to APCCA.
14. SPD had also redesigned the APCCA website and initiated the publication of the 22nd APCCA Discussion Papers on the website. The publication of the 22nd APCCA discussion papers from a total of 16 countries[1] had definitely promoted the sharing of best practices among correctional administrators.
15. SPD is reimbursed from the APCCA Fund for the engagement of an Internet Service Provider to provide the web hosting service.
Concluding Remark
16. The Secretariat takes this opportunity to thank all APCCA members for their contribution to and support for its work in the past year.
APCCA Secretariat
December 2003
1 The countries who had given permission for SPD to publish their countries’ discussion papers include Australia, Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Macao (China), Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Tonga.