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Niki Law

22pc behind bars are female, study shows;  no need to review sentencing, government says

Hong Kong has the highest proportion of female prisoners in the world, research into jail populations around the globe has revealed.

Per capita, the number of women prisoners  in the city is 480 per cent higher than on the mainland, according to the first World Female Imprisonment List.

The list notes that   2,708 women and girls were locked up in jails and detention centres at the end of October last year - 22.1 per cent of the city's  penal population.

The study of 187 countries and regions was carried out by the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS) at King's College in London, found Hong Kong's. It found that elsewhere, women typically make up between 2 per cent and 9 per cent of the prison population.  The median percentage in Asia is 5.4 per cent. On the mainland, there were  71,286 female prisoners -  4.6 per cent of the jail population.

'I was very surprised to see Hong Kong with the highest percentage. I thought maybe there would be a few countries with 10 to 15 per cent but a country with a female prisoner percentage over 20 per cent is a complete anomaly,' said research associate Anton Shelupanov.

'Countries have to understand that mass incarceration does not mean public safety.

'Most prisons are designed for men and cannot cater to women's needs. Plus, the social cost of placing women in jail - especially if they have any children - is very high.'

The Correctional Services Department attributes the unusually high proportion of female prisoners to the flood of mainland prostitutes entering the   city in recent years.

Last year non-locals made up of 68.4 per cent of female prisoners, with most convicted for soliciting, overstaying and breaching conditions of stay - often a euphemism for prostitution.

In the first six months of this year  2,269 female prisoners, of whom 1,582 were non-locals, were in Hong Kong's five designated female correctional facilities.

A departmental  officer, who did not want to be named, said: 'It's unfair that we have been named as having the world's highest female prisoner population. If you take away the mainland prostitutes our percentage is normal.'

Removing non-locals would lower the city's percentage to about 7 per cent.

To cope with the large number of female mainland offenders, Lai Chi Kok Correctional Institution was extended  this year to provide an additional 650 places, raising the city's total to 2,000.

The government has solved the problem of overcrowding,  which peaked in 2002 when there were 2,724 female prisoners, 74.5 per cent of whom were non-locals, but only 1,340 places. But it  has been criticised for not getting to the root of the problem.

George Tsang, of the Prisoners' Friends Association, a volunteer group that visits prisoners, said mainland offenders would keep coming in if laws were not revised.

'The women usually have been jailed here before. They say the conditions are quite comfortable and their sentences are quite short,' Mr Tsang said. 'So they get caught, sit out the short sentence, go home and then come back again after a few months to try again. Their record in Hong Kong does not follow them around the mainland.'

The ICPS agrees that revisions to sentencing  is the best way to deal with overcrowding.

'If there is overcrowding due to a lot of reoffenders, the solution being used to deal with the problem is obviously not the best one,' Mr Shelupanov said. 'In many penal systems women are sentenced for crimes men would not be sentenced for because of perception. They should either not put as many women in jail or revise the sentencing.'

The Department of Justice said  there was no indication  the severity of sentences imposed on mainland offenders needed  reviewing.



HK has world's highest ratio of  women in prison