Lo Wu Correctional Institution () is a medium-security prison in
Lo Wu
Lo Wu () is an area in North District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It lies on the border between Hong Kong and mainland China, specifically the Luohu District of Shenzhen in mainland China. The area is most notable as the location of the most ...
,
New Territories
The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...
, Hong Kong housing adult women prisoners and remands. It is the largest
women's prison
Approximately 741,000 women are incarcerated in correctional facilities, a 17% increase since 2010 and the female prison population has been increasing across all continents.[British Forces
The British Armed Forces are the unified military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping ef ...]
base called Lo Wu Camp, which was later used to accommodate
Vietnamese refugees
Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...
.
To help alleviate
prison overcrowding Prison overcrowding is a social phenomenon occurring when the demand for space in a prison exceeds the capacity for Prisoner, prisoners.
By country
Egypt
Amnesty International reported on 25 January 2021 the abuse of prisoners in Egypt not onl ...
, the military base was converted into the minimum-security Lo Wu Correctional Institution, which upon completion in August 1997 had a capacity of 208.
Overcrowding of the prison system remained a problem. Hence, the government developed plans to redevelop the Lo Wu Correctional Institution to provide a total of 1,400 penal places, an increase of nearly 1,200. In July 2006, the redevelopment plan was endorsed by the Finance Committee of the
Legislative Council
A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...
.
Work began in April 2007. Construction was carried out by contractor Yau Lee Group.
The
design-and-build contract was administered by the
Architectural Services Department
The Architectural Services Department is a department of the Government of Hong Kong responsible for the design and construction of many public facilities throughout the territory. It is subordinate to the Works Branch of the Development B ...
of the Hong Kong government. A topping-out ceremony was held on 11 August 2009.
The project was completed in April 2010. The new facility began operation on 2 July 2010, when the first 135 inmates arrived from Chi Ma Wan Correctional Institution, which was subsequently closed for redevelopment. Others came Lai Chi Kok Correctional Institution, which also closed and was later merged into
Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.
The chief executive of Hong Kong,
Donald Tsang
Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen (; born 7 October 1944) is a former Hong Kong civil servant who served as the second Chief Executive of Hong Kong from 2005 to 2012.
Tsang joined the colonial civil service as an Executive Officer in 1967, occupyi ...
, formally opened the rebuilt Lo Wu Correctional Institution on 24 August 2010. The redevelopment project cost approximately HK$1.5 billion.
Description
The prison has a capacity of 1,400. It houses adult women prisoners and remands.
There are three wings. The minimum-security Main Wing has a capacity of 600. The medium-security East and West wings each provide 400 penal places.
Located in a rural area with no public sewer system, Lo Wu Correctional Institution was built with its own
membrane bioreactor
Membrane bioreactors are combinations of membrane processes like microfiltration or ultrafiltration with a biological wastewater treatment process, the activated sludge process. These technologies are now widely used for municipal and industri ...
sewage treatment plant.
According to a 2020 news article, approximately 40 per cent of inmates were of non-Chinese ethnicity at that time.
Notable inmates
*
Agnes Chow
Agnes Chow Ting ( zh, 周庭; born 3 December 1996) is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. She is a former member of the Standing Committee of Demosisto and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Her candidacy for the March 2018 Hong Kong ...
– activist (until 31 December 2020)
*
Cyd Ho
Cyd Ho Sau-lan () is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco) for the Hong Kong Island constituency.
She is a founding member of the Labour Party, since December 2011, and currently holds the position of vice-chairwoman ...
– former lawmaker
*
Yau Wai-ching
Regine Yau Wai-ching (; born 6 May 1991) is a former Hong Kong politician and former member of the localist camp Youngspiration. She was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a member for Kowloon West in the 2016 Legislative C ...
– former lawmaker
*
Tiffany Yuen
Tiffany Yuen Ka-wai ( zh, link=no, t=袁嘉蔚; born 30 September 1993) is a Hong Kong activist and politician, who has been a member of the Southern District Council for Tin Wan since 2020. She was the vice chairperson of Demosistō before res ...
– former district councillor
See also
*
Prisons in Hong Kong
Prisons in Hong Kong are correctional facilities in Hong Kong, which are managed by the Correctional Services Department. Facilities have different purposes. Hong Kong has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the region.
Description
Pri ...
References
External links
*
{{China prisons
1997 establishments in Hong Kong
North District, Hong Kong
Prisons in Hong Kong