HM Prison Chi Ma Wan / Chi Ma Wan Correctional Institution [????- ]

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Current condition
In use

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Photos that show this Place

1969
c.1970

Comments

The Shap Long Home for the Disabled was run by the Social Welfare Office. 

The centre was taken over by the Prisons Department on 3 December 1956 for use as Hong Kong's first open prison at Chi Ma Wan

 

Source: 

  1. Hong Kong Annual Report 1956
  2. Colonial penality : a case study of Hong Kong's penal policy and programmes under British administration (1945-1997). See:  https://www.academia.edu/103260181/Colonial_penality_a_case_study_of_Hong_Kongs_penal_policy_and_programmes_under_British_administration_1945_1997_

Although both the Chi Man Wan and Chi Sun Correctional Institutions are still standing (or were the last time I was there a couple of years ago), they have both been mothballed since about 2010 (a rather approximate date, certainly before 2012). So "In Use" is perhaps not the most appropriate description of their current condition.

In the 1980s the 2 institutions were known as Chi Ma Wan (Upper) and (Lower), both run by Correctional Services. The lower camp at the beach, comprising nissen huts, was HK's first closed camp for newly arrived Vietnamese, after the policy to detain new arrivals was introduced mid 1982. The upper camp on the hillside above, a permanent prison structure, as well as being a prison was used to detain Vietnamese troublemakers from the lower camp and sometimes as an "overspill." In time, a new Vietnamese camp was added (from about 1983) at Hei Ling Chau island and later at Bowring Camp nr Tuen Mun. Then in the late 80s, when the last great influx occurred, further camps were built at Whitehead nr Shatin, High Island, Shek Kong and Tai A Chau.