The 1973 Stanley Prison Riot and the Subsequent Changes

A riot broke out at Stanley Prison during the Easter weekend of 19 April 1973 and ended on 23 April 1973. At the time Stanley Prison was housing 2,396 prisoners

43 See Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Report 1969-70 and A Summery of the Work of the Prisons Department by the Commissioner of Prisons, T.G. Garner, C.B.E., J.P. for the year 1981.

44 The ‘Extra Mural Department’ of the University of Hong Kong was re-named as the ‘School of Professional and Continuing Education’, SPACE in short.

45 See Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports, 1967-68.

which was almost doubled its certified accommodation. The prison was staffed by 263 prison staff, including 28 on hospital and driving duties; and was 26% below its approved establishment of 361.

Around 1700 hrs on 19 April, 300 prisoners barricaded themselves in the dining hall in protest of an earlier incident when a prisoner was warned by staff. This particular prisoner was however a known triad boss and one of the major illicit drug suppliers inside the prison. Commissioner Garner stepped-in personally and persuaded the prisoner representatives that there would be an investigation to look into their allegations of undue security measures, frequent searches and poor diet. He promised to take appropriate action if they had legitimate grievances. Prisoners subsequently returned to their cells and were fed in small groups after handing out their list of complaints which concerned inadequate recreation facilities, poor quality of food and the new system of searches which had been recently introduced.⁴⁶

Riot broke out the next morning shortly after unlock. Prisoners of A Hall took three prison staff hostage, took the cell door keys and unlocked all prisoners from their cells and caused havoc inside the Hall. They had succeeded in blocking the prison officers responding to the situation from entering the Hall despite the use of tear smoke.

Commissioner Garner again intervened personally and parleyed with the prisoner representatives. The three hostages were later released unharmed and an uneasy peace followed.⁴⁷

46 Hong Kong Commercial Daily, 19 April 2005.

47 Ibid.

Meanwhile fire broke out in other Halls as prisoners protested about the delay of the issue of the morning meal. For the next two days, there were more disturbances in the other Halls. Glass windows were smashed and thrown at staff and more fires were started by prisoners by burning their wooden cell doors. The riot finally died down on 23 April and according to the official report:

“Despite the intensity of the disturbance and the fact that two members of the staff received minor injuries, no prisoner was injured.”⁴⁸

This incident had aroused great concern from the Government and the Secretary of State was also informed of the incident by the Governor of Hong Kong. A request was also made to avail two experts from the Home Office in London to advise on the general prison architecture and fittings as well as prison administration and security.

The need for having a full commission of enquiry by the Home Office was also considered whilst the Prisons Department was ordered to conduct its own initial enquiry.⁴⁹

The departmental Board of Enquiry, chaired by the Deputy Commissioner Mr. T.

Ecob, submitted its report in May 1973 pointing to two key areas concerning staff and the prisoners. Staff issues included the shortage in junior rank staff, low staff morale and the involvement of corrupt staff in the trafficking of dangerous drugs. As to problems concerning prisoners, it highlighted the influx of more young and violent offenders, overcrowding, triad and gang activities and inadequate supervision.

Tightening of security and discipline was recommended and improvement to the

48 Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports 1973-74. p.1.

49 Ibid.

physical security of Stanley Prison was urgently needed to cope with this new type of prisoner elements which had created the situation leading to the Easter riot.⁵⁰

Whilst awaiting the Home Office experts to arrive Hong Kong, the Government had taken urgent actions on 30 April 1973 for the Finance Committee to approve HK$500,000 for security improvement at Stanley Prison. A ten feet high barbed wire fence encircling the prison was immediately erected inside the prison wall, providing a protected road round the inner perimeter of the prison. Stanley prison was divided into two sections with fence and the open space was fenced off for use as a football field.⁵¹

The two Home Office experts, Mr. J. E. Henderson-Smith, Senior Deputy Regional Director of Prisons, former Deputy Governor of Liverpool and Governor of Gloucester Prison together with Mr. J. A. Burrell, Senior Grade Architect involved in development and improvement of UK prisons, stayed in Hong Kong from 18 May to 1 June 1973. Their terms of reference were to advise on the administration of Stanley Prison in particular, and that of other prisons in general; to examine the structure of and security arrangement at Stanley Prison and to make recommendations as to their improvement; to review other building proposals in the planning stage in the Prisons Department programme, and to advise on security and structural aspects and to report their findings and recommendations to the Governor.⁵²

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 A copy of the undated Report “Visit to Hong Kong” by Henderson-Smith, S.E. and Burrell, J. A. is kept at the Library, Prison Service Training and Development Group, Prison Service College, Newbold Revel, Rugby, UK.

Another urgent measure taken up by the Government was for the Finance Committee to approve on 25 June 1973 the creation of 53 supernumerary posts for Stanley Prison as an interim step to beef up the staffing situation thereat before the UK experts finalised their report. The created posts included 24 Assistant Officers Class I and II as additional Hall staff for night duty, 26 Assistant Officers for the temporary Stanley Prison Annexe under construction for 80 prisoners together with one Principal Officer and two Prison Officers as supervisors.⁵³

After the Easter riot, twelve Assistant Officers were dismissed from the services mainly for refusing to obey orders to enter the Halls during the riots. Prisoners involved in the riot were disciplined and punished under Prison Rules. 65 prisoners mostly kitchen cooks or cleaners who maintained the essential services at Stanley Prison during the riot had a reduction of three months of their sentence.⁵⁴

The two Home Office prison advisors presented their report to Governor Sir Murray MacLehose in June 1973 with 53 recommendations which could be grouped into six major areas, i.e., buildings, industries and stores, management, medical, prisoners, security and staff.⁵⁵

A Steering Committee chaired by the Secretary of Security Mr. G. P. Llord with the Commissioner of Prisons, Principal Government Architect, Principal Assistant Colonial Secretary and the Principal Assistant Financial Secretary as members was formed to study the recommendations made by the UK advisors and to decide on the way forward on the implementation of these recommendations.

53 See Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports 1973-74.

54 See South China Morning Post, 27 November 1974.

55 Henderson-Smith, S.E. and Burrell, J. A. (undated) op cit.

The degree of support received from the related Government branches and departments after the riot had enabled the Prisons Department to embark in a most comprehensive reform programme since the Second World War. The Department was using this opportunity to adopt a much more authoritative approach in the management of offenders under its charge. One of the priorities was the enhancement of the quality of the prison staff. Apart from getting rid of those who had refused to take orders during the riots, the Department had co-operated fully with the newly established Independent Commission Against Commission (ICAC) to remove those prison staff involved in corruptive practices.

The government gave its approval for the Prisons Department to create 540 new posts in 1974 which was almost a third of the existing staff strength with an additional HK$9.4 million provision in respect of personal emoluments.⁵⁶ These additional posts included 3 Senior Superintendents, 8 Superintendents, 15 Chief Officers, 21 Principal Officers, 87 Officers and 406 Assistant Officers I/II. The post of Inspector of Prisons and other senior management staff to deal with narcotics, prison industries, vocational training, nursing and after-care were also created. The new posts allowed for the establishment of the Escort Unit within the Prisons Department to provide their own court escorts; departmental training reserve to enable serving staff to attend in-service training without affecting the operation and security of the institutions. ⁵⁷

The post of the Inspector of Prison, at the rank of Senior Superintendent, was created in October 1973. The post was modelled on the HM Prison Services system and the designated officer was arranged to attach to the Inspectorate of the Prison Department

56 See Hong Kong Hansard, 24 April 1974, p. 821.

57 Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports 1973-74.

of the Home Office in England on training purpose. He had accompanied the Chief Inspector of Prisons in the Prison Service for England and Wales on a number of inspections of HM Prison establishments.⁵⁸

The English practices on prison inspection were brought back to Hong Kong to enable the development of a systematic inspecting and reporting system on the efficiency, shortcomings and needs of individual institutions by full inspections carried out by the Inspector of Prisons and his team once every three years. Apart from monitoring the performance of the institutions, the Inspectorate was also required to oversee the security of the department by maintaining close liaison with the Police and other law enforcement agencies and the collection and analysis of prisoner intelligence through the institutional security officers.⁵⁹

With the approval given to employ more prison staff, in particular at the officer grades, the department had approached the local tertiary institutions for graduates to join the services. It succeeded in securing a new cadre of better educated young graduates in joining the service as Prison Officers. During the year 1974-75, 29 degree holders joined the Prisons Department as Prison Officer.⁶⁰

With the enhanced staff strength, the Prison Department was able to tighten the control and management of prisoners under its charge. As a result, the problem of illicit drugs in the prisons was under control and the triads had lost their influences inside the prison.⁶¹ Other major security improvement was the adaptation of the

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid.

60 Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports 1974-75.

61 See Hong Kong Hansard, 23 April 1975, p. 712.

prisoner categorization system used in England and Wales as per recommendations of Lord Mountbatten’s Report of 1966. Prisoners are graded in one of the four categories from A to D according to their security risks and they would be appropriately located to institutions suitable to accommodate prisoners of that particular security category.⁶²

A lot of these improvements required additional funding from the central Government.

As revealed from the Prisons Department Annual Reports, the expenditure for the Prisons Department was indeed increased from HK$24.5 million in 1972 to HK$73.9 million in 1975, an increase of over 200% in three years.⁶³

Another important change happened to the Prisons Department after the 1973 Stanley Prison Riot was the change in the chain of command within the Hong Kong Government. Acting upon the recommendations of the ‘McKinsey Report’ in enhancing the efficiency of the Hong Kong Government, six new policy branches, each under a newly appointed Secretary, were established to cover the: Economic Services, Environment, Home affairs, Housing, Security, and Social Services.⁶⁴

“On Monday 1st October, 1973 Security Branch [of the Government Secretariat]

assumed responsibility from Social Services Branch for prisons matter.”⁶⁵ All matters concerning penal policy objectives, initiatives from and resources for the Prisons Department had to be cleared by the Secretary of Security, who was also responsible all other disciplinary services in Hong Kong.

62 Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports 1973-74

63 Calculated from Commissioner of Prisons, Annual Departmental Reports 1972-73 to 1975-76.

64 Miners, N. (1995) The Government and Politics of Hong Kong. (Fifth Edition) Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

65 Management Circular no. 10/73 titled: Colonial Secretariat – Nominated Secretaries dated 11 September 1973 in HKRS 41-2-1-56