Stanley Prison (c. January 1937, previously known as Hong Kong Prison at Stanley) is one of the six maximum security facilities in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

History

Built in 1937, Stanley Prison is currently the oldest institution still in service (the oldest prison built in Hong Kong was

Victoria Prison Victoria Prison was the first and longest-running prison to date in Hong Kong. It is located on Old Bailey Street in Central, Hong Kong, Central, Hong Kong Island. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, it was originally known as Victoria Gaol ...

, which ceased operation on 24 December 2005) and houses both male adult convicted prisoners and male adult remand prisoners. It was set up by the then Prisons Department, and is now administered by the

Correctional Services Department The Correctional Services Department (CSD) is responsible for the management of prisoners and prisons in Hong Kong. The Commissioner of Correctional Services reports to the Secretary for Security. History Although the Chief Magistrate (now C ...

. The maximum capacity of the prison is 1,511 and it has over 800 staff and officers. Stanley Prison, at the time of its construction, was considered to be one of the finest prisons in the British Empire. It was a modern structure built of stone, concrete and steel and consisted of six cell blocks set behind an 18-foot wall. It was originally designed to house 1,500 prisoners. Before Hong Kong officially abolished the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

in 1993, Stanley Prison had been a place of execution between 1946 and 1966. Although the law did not change until 1993, the last execution that was carried out in Stanley Prison was in November 1966. 122 people were executed in Stanley Prison until then, however, this figure does not include the large number of prisoners who were killed by the Japanese during the occupation of Hong Kong in World War II—see below. The area which once housed the gallows has now been replaced with the prison hospital.

Japanese occupation

Hong Kong fell to the invading Japanese on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

1941 following a brief but brutal conflict. During the Japanese occupation, the grounds of the prison were used as part of

Stanley Internment Camp Stanley Internment Camp () was a civilian internment camp in Hong Kong during the Second World War. Located in Stanley, Hong Kong, Stanley, on the southern end of Hong Kong Island, it was used by the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese imperial fo ...

. It was a place of torture and execution, with

Mateen Ansari Captain Mateen Ahmed Ansari George Cross, GC (15 December 1916 – 29 October 1943) of the 5th Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment, in the Indian Army during World War II, and member of the British Army Aid Group. He was awarded the George Cross Posth ...

, who was posthumously awarded the

George Cross The George Cross (GC) is the highest award bestowed by the British government for non-operational Courage, gallantry or gallantry not in the presence of an enemy. In the British honours system, the George Cross, since its introduction in 1940, ...

for his heroism in resisting the Japanese, as one of the most famous victims. During the Japanese invasion of China, refugees crawled across the border to Hong Kong and many became hawkers on the streets. Those who were caught were sent to Stanley Prison and soon the inmate population grew to over 3,000, well over its limits.

Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum

Adjacent to Stanley Prison is the Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum. The museum is housed in a two-storey building next to the parade ground of the Staff Training Institute of the Correctional Services Department in Stanley. It has an area of 480 square metres with a collection of some 600 artefacts.

Notable inmates

* Kanao Inouye: Canadian-Japanese collaborator, hanged in 1947. *

Naomasa Sakonju was a vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and a convicted war criminal. Biography A native of Kagoshima Prefecture, Sakonju was a graduate of the 40th class of the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1912, placing 98th i ...

: Japanese war criminal, hanged in 1948. * Rurik Jutting: Convicted of the

murders of Sumarti Ningsih and Jesse Lorena Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, ...

. * Chan Man-lok and Leung Wai-lun: Convicted of the

Hello Kitty murder case The Hello Kitty murder case () took place in Hong Kong in the spring of 1999, when a nightclub hostess was abducted in Lai Yiu Estate, tortured and raped in an apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, after stealing a wallet owned by one of her ...

. * Tony Wong Chun-loong, a.k.a.

Wong Yuk-long Tony Wong Chun-loong (born 27 March 1950), better known by his pseudonyms Wong Yuk-long or Tony Wong, is a Hong Kong manhua artist, publisher and actor, who wrote and created ''Little Rascals'' (later re-titled ''Oriental Heroes'') and '' Weapon ...

* Ting Kai-tai: given a life sentence for the 2008

murder of Wong Ka-mui On 27 April 2008, at Shek Kip Mei, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, 16-year-old sex worker Wong Ka-mui (王嘉梅 Wáng Jīaméi), alias Kiki Wong, was murdered by strangulation after having sex with her then-24-year-old male client Ting Kai-tai (丁启� ...

Jimmy Lai Lai Chee-ying ( zh, t=黎智英; born 8 December 1947), also known as Jimmy Lai, is a Hong Kong businessman and politician. He founded Giordano (clothing), Giordano, an Asian clothing retailer, Next Digital (formerly Next Media), a Hong Kon ...

: Media mogul, held in solitary on charges of

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech or organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...

as of 2024

Notes

External links