TRAINING CENTRES ORDINANCE

TRAINING CENTRES ORDINANCE

LAWS OF HONG KONG

TRAINING CENTRES ORDINANCE

CHAPTER 280





CHAPTER 280

TRAINING CENTRES ORDINANCE

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Section

1. Short title
2. Interpretation
3. Provision of training centres
4. Sentence of detention in a training centre

4A. Remand or committal to custody in a training centre ................................

5. Supervision .............................................

5A. Effect of imprisonment or further sentence of detention ............................

6. Provisions as to arrest and further detention of persons unlawfully at large
7. Transfers from prison to training centre and vice versa
8. Application of Prisons Ordinance, Mental Health Ordinance, and Evidence

Ordinance ....................................................................................................

9. Detention orders

10. Regulations .....................................................................................................

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CHAPTER 280

TRAINING CENTRES

Toprovide for the establishment of training centres for the training and
reformation of offenders who have attained the age of 14 years and have not
attained the age of 21 years, and for purposes connected with the matters
aforesaid.

(Amended, 52 of 1954, s. 2)

[6 March 1953]

Originally 5 of 1953 -52 of 1954,7 of 1956,26 of 1968,55 of 1971,4 of 1974,92 of 1975,63 of
1978,

,m,

L.N. 30182,44 of 1987,14 of 1988 's 7

Short title

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Training Centres Ordinance.

Interpretation

2. In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires-

'Commissioner' means the Commissioner of Correctional Services of the Colony or
a Deputy Commissioner; (Replaced, 7 of 1956, s. 2. Amended, L.N. 30182)

'court' means the High Court or the District Court or a permanent or special
magistrate; (Amended, 92 of 1975, s. 59)

'functions' includes powers and duties;

'judge' includes a judge of the District Court.

Provision of training centres

3. (1) The Secretary for Security may establish institutions, hereinafter referred
to as training centres

(a)for the training and reformation of offenders who have attained the age of
14 years and have not attained the age of 21 years; and

(b)to which persons who have attained the age of 14 years and have not
attained the age of 21 years may be remanded or committed under section
4A(I). (Replaced, 26 of 1968, s. 2)

(2) The Secretary for Security may declare that such places and buildings as he
may deem fit shall be used for the purposes of a training centre, and any such
declaration shall be published in the Gazette.

(Amended, 63 of 1978, s. 2)

Sentence of detention in a training centre

4. (1) Where a person is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment,
then if on the day of his conviction he is in the opinion of the





court not less than 14 but under 21 years of age, and the court is satisfied that it is in
the interest of the community and that having regard to his character and previous
conduct, and to the circumstances of the offence, it is expedient for his reformation
and for the prevention of crime that he should undergo a period of training in a
training centre, the court may, in lieu of any other sentence, pass a sentence of
detention in a training centre. (Amended, 52 of 1954, s. 2)

(2) A person sentenced to detention shall be detained in a training centre for
such period, not extending beyond 3 years from the date of his sentence, as the
Commissioner may determine, and shall then be released:

Provided that the Commissioner shall not release any such person before the
expiration of 6 months from the date of his sentence, unless required to do so by
direction of the Governor. (Amended, 4 of 1974, s. 2)

(3) Before a sentence of detention is passed, the court shall consider any report
or representations made by or on behalf of the Commissioner on the offender's
physical and mental condition and his suitability for such sentence; and if the court
is the District Court or a magistrate and has not received such a report or
representations, it shall after conviction remand the offender into the custody of the
Commissioner for such a period or periods, not exceeding 3 weeks in the case of any
single period, as the court thinks necessary to enable the report or representations
to be made.

[cf. U.K. 1948 c. 58, s. 20 (1) & (7) and 2nd Sch.]

Remand or committal to custody in a training centre

4A. (1) A court on remanding or committing for trial a person who in the
opinion of the court has attained the age of 14 years and has not attained the age of
21 years and who is not released on bail shall, instead of committing him to prison,
commit him to custody in a training centre, there to be detained for the period for
which he is remanded or until he is thence delivered in due course of law:

Provided that it shall not be obligatory on the court so to commit him if the
court certifies that he is of so unruly a character that he cannot be safely so
committed or that he is otherwise unsuitable for committal to custody in a training
centre. (Amended, 4 of 1974, s. 3)

(2) A commitment under this section may be varied or, in the case of a person
who proves to be of so unruly a character that he cannot be safely detained in such
custody, or to be otherwise unsuitable for committal to custody in a training centre,
revoked by any court, and if it is so revoked the person may be committed to prison.
(Amended, 4 of 1974, s. 3)

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) shall affect the power of a juvenile court to
remand a child or young person to custody in a place of detention as provided by
section 7(1) of the Juvenile Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 226).

(Added, 26 of 1968, s. 3)
[cf. U.K. 1908 c. 67, s. 971

Supervision

5. (1) A person after his release from a training centre and until the expiration of
3 years from the date of his release may be subjected to supervision





by such society or person as may be specified in a notice to be given him by the
Commissioner on his release, and shall, while under supervision, comply with such
requirements, including requirements as to residence, as may be so specified:
(Amended, 4of 1974,s. 4and44 of 1987, s. 5)

Provided that the Commissioner may at any time modify or cancel any of the
said requirements or order that a person who is under supervision as aforesaid shall
cease to be under supervision.

(1A) A person who fails to comply with any requirement for the time being
specified in a notice given to him under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence
and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $5,000 and to imprisonment for 12
months. (Added, 4 of 1974, s. 4)

(2) If the Commissioner is satisfied that a person under supervision has failed
to comply with any requirement for the time being specified in the notice given to
him under subsection (1), the Commissioner may by order recall such person to a
training centre, and thereupon such person shall be liable to be detained in a
training centre until the expiration of 3 years from the date of his sentence, or the
expiration of 6 months from the date of his being taken into custody under the order,
whichever is the later, and, if at large, such person shall be deemed to be unlawfully
at large:

Provided that

(a)any such order shall, at the expiration of 3 years from the date he is first
released, cease to have effect unless the person to whom it relates is then
in custody thereunder; and

(b)

the Commissioner may at any time release a person who is detained in a
training centre under this subsection; and the foregoing provisions of this
section shall apply in the case of a person so released as they apply in the
case of a person released under section 4(2).

(Amended, 4 of 1974, s. 4)

Effect of imprisonment or further sentence of detention

SA. (1) If a person in respect of whom a sentence of detention in a training
centre, or a supervision notice or order of recall under section 5, is in force is
sentenced to imprisonment

(a)for a term of 2 years or less and the sentence of imprisonment is not
suspended, the sentence of detention, supervision notice or order of recall
shall be suspended until the expiration of his term of imprisonment;
(Amended, 63 of 1978, s. 3)

(b)for a term of more than 2 years or a new sentence of detention in a training
centre is passed on him, the first-mentioned sentence of detention in a
training centre, or the supervision notice or order of recall, as the case
may be, shall cease to have effect.

(2) A sentence of detention in a training centre, or a supervision notice or order
of recall under section 5, passed on, given to or made against any person on whom
a suspended sentence of imprisonment has been passed (whether passed, given or
made before or after the suspended sentence was passed) shall,





if that suspended sentence is ordered to take effect, be suspended until the
expiration of his term of imprisonment. (Added, 63 of 1978, s. 3)

(Added, 4 of 1974, s. 5)

Provisions as to arrest and further detention of persons unlawfully at large

6. (1) Any person sentenced to detention who is or is deemed to be unlawfully
at large may be arrested by any police officer without warrant and taken to the place
in which he is required by law to be detained.

(1A) Any person in respect of whom a supervision notice has been made under
section 5 and against whom an order of recall has been made under subsection (2) of
that section who is or is deemed to be unlawfully at large may be arrested without
warrant by any officer of the Correctional Services Department specified in that
supervision notice, or such other officer of that Department as the Commissioner
may substitute for the officer so specified by a modification of the requirements of
that notice, and taken to the place in which he is required by law to be detained.
(Added, 14 of 1988, s. 2)

(2) Where any person sentenced to detention is unlawfully at large at any time
during the period for which he is liable to be detained in pursuance of the sentence,
then unless the Governor otherwise directs no account shall be taken in calculating
the period for which he is liable to be so detained of any time during which he was
absent from the training centre:

Provided that

(a)this subsection shall not apply to any period during which any such
person as aforesaid is detained in prison pursuant to the sentence of any
court; and

(b)nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed as extending the
period during which a person sentenced to detention is liable to
supervision under section 5.

. Transfers from prison to training centre and vice versa

7. (1) If the Governor is satisfied that a person serving a sentence of
imprisonment is under 21 years of age and might with advantage be detained in a
training centre, he may, after consultation where practicable with the judge or
magistrate who passed the sentence, authorize the Commissioner to transfer such
person to a training centre; and the provisions of this Ordinance shall thereupon
apply to such person as if he had on the date of the transfer been sentenced to
detention in a training centre: (Amended, 52 of 1954, s. 2)

Provided that if on that date the unexpired term of his sentence is less than 3
years, those provisions shall apply to him as if he had been sentenced to detention
in a training centre 3 years before the expiration of that term.

(2) If a person in respect of whom a sentence of detention in a training centre is
in force is reported to the Governor by the Commissioner to be incorrigible, or to be
exercising a bad influence on the other inmates of the training centre, the Governor
may commute the unexpired part of the term for which the said person is then liable
to be detained in a training centre to such





term of imprisonment as the Governor may determine, not exceeding the said
unexpired part or the term to which the said person was liable for the offence of
which he was convicted, whichever be the less; and for the purpose of this
Ordinance, the said person shall be treated as if he had been sentenced to
imprisonment for the term so determined by the Governor. (Amended, 4 of 1974,s.6)

[cf. U.K. 1948 c. 58, s. 591

Application of Prisons Ordinance, Mental Health Ordinance, and Evidence
Ordinance

8. (1) Subject to any regulations made under section 10 of this Ordinance, the
provisions of

(a)sections 9 to 12 inclusive, section 16, sections 17 to 21 inclusive and
section 23 of the Prisons Ordinance (Cap. 234);

(b) the Prison Rules (Cap. 234, sub. leg.); and

(c) sections 55 and 56 of the Mental Health Ordinance (Cap. 136),

shall apply to training centres and to the staff thereof and to persons sentenced to
detention therein under section 4(1) or committed thereto under section 4A(I) in like
manner as if the persons so detained were prisoners and a training centre were a
prison, and such provisions shall be read with such verbal alterations and
modifications not affecting their substance as are necessary to render the same
conveniently applicable: (Amended, 7 of 1956, s. 3; 26 of 1968, s. 4 and 4 of 1974, s.
7)

Provided that

(a)in the event of conflict between the provisions of this Ordinance and the
provisions of the Prisons Ordinance or the Mental Health Ordinance the
provisions of this Ordinance shall prevail;

(b)a person committed under section 4A(I) shall be treated as a prisoner
awaiting trial.

(Replaced, 26 of 1968, s. 4)

(2) [Repealed, 4 of 1974, s. 7]

(3) Section 81 of the Evidence Ordinance (Cap. 8) shall apply to persons
detained in a training centre by virtue of this Ordinance in like manner as if they
were prisoners.

(4) In any enactment enacted prior to the commencement of this Ordinance, the
term 'prison' shall be deemed to include a training centre and the term 'prisoner' to
include a person detained in a training centre: (Amended, 55 of 1971, s. 66)

Provided that this subsection shall have no application if its application would
lead to conflict between such enactment and any provision of this Ordinance or any
regulation made under section 10.

Detention orders

9. (1) Where a court passes a sentence of detention in a training centre upon
any person, it shall make an order in writing under the seal of the court in the
prescribed form.





(2) The court shall cause such order to be delivered with the person to whom it
relates to the Commissioner, and such order shall be sufficient authority for the
detention of such person in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance.

Regulations

10. The Governor in Council may be regulation provide for- IS

(a) the regulation and management of training centres;

(b)the treatment, employment, discipline, control and welfare of the persons
detained therein;

(c)the appointment of visiting justices and visiting committees and the
functions of such justices and committees;

(d)forms to be used for the purposes of this Ordinance and any regulations
made thereunder;

(e)the modification in relation to training centres or persons detained therein
of any enactment which by virtue of section 8 would apply to training
centres or persons detained therein, or that any such enactment shall
cease to apply to training centres or persons detained therein; and

(f) the better carrying into effect of the provisions of this Ordinance.

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