Reception and Classification as the Key to Rehabilitation

Introduction

1.                                 This paper outlines the reception management and classification system of the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department with reference to the goal of rehabilitation.

2.                                 As general background, the Hong Kong Correctional Services Department operates 28 penal institutions and four half-way houses for discharged offenders. The institutions include four reception facilities for young and adult males or females respectively. Others include prisons, drug addiction treatment centres, institutions for young offenders and a psychiatric centre. The penal population numbers in the region of 12,500. There are another 3,000 discharged offenders under various statutory supervision schemes. The staff establishment numbers about 7,000. Apart from custodial staff, they include aftercare officers, industrial staff, psychologists, clerical grades etc.

Vision and Mission

3.                                 Increasing emphasis has been placed on the rehabilitation of offenders in recent years. “To deliver quality custodial and rehabilitative services recognised internationally for excellence” is the Vision Statement. The rehabilitation business is now one of five main divisions in the Department’s organisation (see Appendix). The Mission: “To provide the best possible opportunity for all inmates to make new start in life, by offering timely, apt and comprehensive rehabilitation programmes”. Thus, safe and humane custody aside, the regimes, activities and services of penal institutions are so oriented. Extensive efforts have also been undertaken to promote community support for rehabilitated offenders by way of publicity activities, media publicity and engaging community resources, with the advice of a specially appointed Committee on Community Support for Rehabilitated Offenders made up of academics, employers, education and voluntary service professionals etc.

4.                                 It would however be futile to talk of rehabilitation if safe and humane custody cannot be assured. In this regard, good order and discipline, and respect for human dignity are but basic conditions to be met. A drug free environment and the ability to lead a life without fear of threat form others are equally important. Only with such conditions will the pursuit of a full and meaningful life – as compatible with the fact of custody, become a practical reality. In this, orderly routines, gainful occupation at work and/or education, sports and recreation, cultural and spiritual activities, communication with and visits by family/friends, community links are all essential ingredients. For long years, the Department has been so committed as part of its Mission. Furthermore, machinery for public scrutiny and grievance procedures are well in place as necessary safeguards.

Reception Management

5.                                 The reception of people into custody extends from persons remanded for trial or sentence to people newly convicted and sentenced. The basic procedures are provided for by legislation including admission search, custody of personal property, taking of personal particulars, medical examination etc. Additional information is gleaned from past record captured in the Department’s Prisoner Information System (PRIS), court documents, Police criminal record and special observation passed on by the relevant law enforcement agency, for example, any escape or suicidal attempt while in their custody. All relevant information including particulars of the court case, personal particulars and matters of importance are fed into the PRIS. Such information is essential to the management of the individual in custody in terms of assessing his risks and needs, whether immediate or longer term.

6.                                 In considering specific sentence options for young offenders or drug addicts, the courts are bound by legislation to consider ‘suitability reports’ from the Department. These entail comprehensive inquiries into the offender’s life history, family relationship etc., in addition to relevant assessment of, say, the character, physical and mental fitness, bearing of previous sentences etc. The offender would be remanded in a reception facility for a period of two to three weeks for that purpose. These pre-sentence assessment reports provide an important source of information in evaluating the offender’s rehabilitation needs/outlook and reference for the rehabilitation plan especially where the specific sentence option entails statutory aftercare supervision.

7.                                 The physical and mental states of new admissions are always of immediate concern. It is a statutory requirement for every person admitted to prison custody to be examined by a medical officer to ascertain his state of health and such other relevant particulars as deemed necessary. Such examination will help determine medical treatment required for particular ailments or injuries, or special management such as isolation for infectious disease or special watch for suicidal case, or referral for psychological/psychiatric assessment. It is not uncommon for new admissions to carry injuries either sustained during commission of the relevant crime, during arrest or while in custody of the relevant law enforcement agency. The medical evidence may become relevant in court or complaint of assault against the relevant authority.

8.                                 Drug dependence is common amongst new admissions. The cutting off from drug supply hence the incidence of withdrawal syndrome does present a special management problem. These addicts are normally treated in the hospital of the reception facility with medication for the specific symptoms (no substitute drugs). However, it is not the nature of addicts to acquiesce the denial of drugs hence a demand within the system. Against all odds, the trend is to swallow small consignments prior to admission where the opportunity avails. This mainly involves male hardcore addicts. If not effectively checked, this can evolve into dedicated, or even organised, trafficking not only into reception facilities but beyond, as inmates move on to other penal institutions to serve their sentence. There is thus an on-going battle at the reception facilities to interdict the incessant attempts. Thus far, the Department is still on the upper hand. Over 90% of total drug seizures are attributed to new admissions at reception facilities. This singular facet of reception is after all critical to ensuring a drug free custodial environment so critical to rehabilitation.

9.                                 Part and parcel of the reception process is informing the person admitted into custody his rights and obligations, treatment and conditions in custody, rules and regulations, complaint channels etc.; and attending to his welfare needs including contacts with his family, personal/family problems arising from his custody, seeking legal assistance etc. Information is passed through admission interviews with senior officers, prisoner welfare officers, induction briefings, information notices and an information booklet issued to every individual immediately upon admission. Where necessary, assistance is rendered by prisoner welfare officers, or aftercare officers in specific sentence options. This part of the reception process is essential to helping the offender coming to terms with life in custody, retaining his family relationship and building rapport with the custodians and rehabilitation workers.

Classification and Categorisation

10.                                One of the first things to be determined upon admission to custody is the person’s security status. This is imperative to ensuring his secure custody. The Department employs a categorisation system which divides inmates into four security categories: A, B, C & D, based on structured risk assessment according to the nature of the offence, any aggravated circumstances, the length of sentence, history of violence or gang activities, previous escape or attempt to escape etc. Broadly, Cat. A refers to those whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or the Police, and for whom the highest conditions of security are necessary; whereas Cat. D refers to those who can reasonably be trusted to serve his sentence in open conditions. The categorisation will indicate the level of security an inmate will be afforded under custody and is subject to review as time and circumstances move on. This, to a large extent, will determine the type of institution where the offender will serve his sentence for as long as the particular security category prevails.

11.                                The law does require male and female inmates to be kept apart, young and adult inmates to be kept apart (21 being the dividing age), remands and convicted persons to be kept apart. The Department further differentiates first and repeat offenders as ‘Star’ and ‘Ordinary’ Classes and endeavours to keep them apart for better management and rehabilitative effects. These all form part of the classification system. On the part of the institutions, they are classified to accommodate specific classifications and security categories of inmates according to their respective functions and level of security they provide. They broadly fall into three categories, namely, maximum, medium and minimum security. All persons remanded or freshly sentenced by the courts are committed to one of the four reception facilities in the first instance according to their age and gender. Those sentenced to detention centre, training centre, or drug addiction treatment centre will serve their sentence at those specific institutions. For those sentenced to prison, a Classification Board will determine their classification and categorisation, and allocate them to appropriate institutions accordingly.

12.                                Apart from fitting the classification and categorisation of the prisoners with the classification of specific institutions, the Classification Board will have to take account of a range of other factors. Health is obviously an important consideration. There are those who may require psychological or psychiatric service, those who are geriatric, or suffering from physical disability of one form or another, or who require regular follow-up by specialist clinics which only call at particular institutions. Those with particular behavioural problem will also entail special consideration. Sex offenders, for instance, will be assigned to institutions with regular psychological service. Those with known homosexual tendency, a rare minority, will be assigned to institutions with single accommodation. Those who have had a history of serious disruptive behaviour will be assigned to maximum-security institutions where they can be better managed. All these are oriented to matching the management and rehabilitation needs with the best-suited facilities and services available at institutions.

13.                                There are other dynamic variables in reality. One obvious variable is the availability of ‘places’ at respective institutions. Another is the uneven composition/admission of prisoners of different classifications or security categories, compounded by persistent overcrowding at the reception facilities and maximum-security institutions. New admissions apart, the categorisation of prisoners is regularly reviewed, and prisoners will be considered for lower security rating as the sentence runs, or vice versa if fresh sentences are passed for other offences. Prisoners are, so to speak, ‘dispersed’ from higher to lower security institutions as they serve out their sentence. There may also arise operational situations, which entail the reshuffle of population amongst institutions, e.g. defusing a major incident or optimizing the use of accommodation. On the other hand, physical conditions and facilities also vary amongst institutions as the design and built came at different times. Generally, cellular accommodation at maximum-security institutions affords more privacy than dormitory accommodation at medium or minimum-security institutions. The infrastructure of work and other supporting facilities at the former are also better. Nevertheless, the progressively less restrictive regime and environment at medium and minimum-security institutions are more conducive to the process of reintegration. In this regard, the ‘dispersal’ policy is serving the goal of rehabilitation.

Looking Forward – Development of the risks and needs evaluation and management procedure for prisoners  

14.                                The current reception management and classification systems are more concerned with security risk assessment and operational needs. This is no longer meeting with the evolving needs in the drive to deliver quality custodial and rehabilitative services recognised for excellence.  It is recognised that systematic risks and needs evaluation will assist the Department to formulate effective strategies in the management, supervision and provision of rehabilitative services for prisoners.  In order to improve the current classification system, and to better identify the custodial and re-offending risks as well as the rehabilitation needs of offenders, the Department has commissioned a study in collaboration with the Correctional Service Canada beginning this year.

15.                                Specifically, the study aims to set up custodial risk predictors for predicting the risks of violence, self-harm, escape and subversive activities amongst prisoners in order to assist in the classification of prisoners as well as to formulate more effective management and supervision strategies.  At the same time, to facilitate the provision of rehabilitative programmes targetting the criminogenic needs of offenders, systematic rehabilitative needs evaluation is imperative in the formulation of rehabilitation plan.  In evaluating rehabilitative needs, we have considered the protocol used in the Correctional Services of Canada and we are now planning our needs evaluation along similar domains of vocational/employment, family/marital, associates/social functioning, community functioning, substance abuse, personal/emotional orientation and attitude.  Apart from assessing the prisoners’ custodial risks and rehabilitation needs, the study also involves the refinement of prediction for predicting the re-offending risks of prisoners.  Information on prisoner’s rehabilitative needs and re-offending risks will serve as important guideline in determining the nature and the intensity of programming for them.  To prevent recidivism, those prisoners with high re-offending risks and high rehabilitation needs will be accorded due priority and a comprehensive rehabilitation plan is called for both during their sentence and while they are undergoing post discharge supervision.  Literature have shown that systematic risks and needs evaluation coupled with appropriate management and provision of rehabilitation programme would reduce recidivism averaging 10%.

16.                    The present study not only provides an opportunity for us to develop an empirically-based risks and needs evaluation measures which is culturally relevant, it also paths the way for a better integration of the risks and needs evaluation data through automation.  The refinement of the risks and needs evaluation measures will be completed by the end of 2003.  With the automation of the risks and needs evaluation procedure, individual risks and needs profile can be readily accessible from the computer and can be used by the staff and management in facilitating decision making in the supervision and management of prisoners.  At the same time, the integrated data-base also provides a penal population profile on prisoners’ overall custodial and re-offending risks and rehabilitative needs.  These data can assist the management in their planning of programmes and policies in the long run.

Summary

17.                                In sum, the reception and classification of offenders involve the collection and evaluation of information on personal background, physical and mental states, criminal record, history of violence, suicide/self-harm, escape, drug abuse etc. This is basically a risks and needs evaluation procedure. The immediate concern is determining the requisite and appropriate level of security for custody, and factors affecting the safety, health and general well being of the person arising from his incarceration. Reception also involves informing the offender his rights and obligations, treatment and conditions in custody, rules and regulations, complaint channels; and attending to his personal/family problems arising from his incarceration. These help the person coming to terms with his incarceration and laying the condition for his rehabilitation. The classification and categorisation of inmates will help determine their allocation to appropriate institutions. This in turn will determine the conditions of the rehabilitation process. The categorisation of inmates is however a time variable and, generally, inmates are ‘dispersed’ from higher to lower security institutions as they serve out their sentence. This is in line with the needs of rehabilitation. Practical reality inevitably creates distortions as the composition of the penal population and available penal places of different classifications do not dovetail into each other. Operational situations also intervene. The commitment is nonetheless to deliver quality custodial and rehabilitative services of internationally recognised excellence. A consultancy study on the risks and needs evaluation procedure is now underway in order to help better the formulation of strategies in the management, supervision and provision of rehabilitative services for offenders.

Appendix