Exclusive | Hong Kong prison service studying scheme to give all inmates a tablet computer so they can keep in touch with outside world
- Inmates could use the devices for email, e-learning, entertainment, and as a means of preparing for life in a technology-saturated world
- Part of the ‘smart prison’ project to modernise correctional facilities, the idea has been backed by a prisoners’ rights concern group and a lawmaker
Hong Kong’s prison authority is studying a scheme to give all inmates a tablet computer so they can email friends and family on the outside, the Post has learned.
Under the Correctional Services Department’s idea, inmates could also use the devices for e-learning, entertainment, and as a means of preparing for life in a technology-saturated world.
Part of the “smart prison” project to modernise Hong Kong’s correctional facilities, the idea has been backed by a prisoners’ rights concern group and a lawmaker. They believe it could help inmates with their rehabilitation.
“We punish inmates by taking their freedom away. But we should maintain their basic human rights, such as for communications and learning, and let them stay in prison with dignity,” said Richard Tsoi Yiu-cheong, a community organiser for the Society for Community Organisation, which campaigns for prisoners’ rights.
The monitored electronic devices would grant inmates access to e-books, e-learning gateways, radio programmes and even allow them to email family, friends, lawyers and officials during leisure hours. Contents would be screened before being sent out. The average daily penal population in the first quarter of 2019 was about 8,100.
