The new Correctional Services Bureau (DSC) headquarters on Estrada da Barragem de Ka Ho (九澳堤壩馬路) was unveiled by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng on Friday morning, also symbolising the official opening of the new prison.
The media was not invited to Friday’s unveiling ceremony. According to a statement by the bureau that night, the ceremony was also attended by Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário, DSC Director Cheng Fong Meng, and Public Works Bureau (DSOP) Director Lam Wai Hou.
The new DSC headquarters, equipped with facilities such as an administration block, a training block and a staff complex, as well as the Coloane Prison, covers a total gross floor area of over 76,000 square metres with a maximum capacity of 2,704 inmates, marking an important milestone which signifies a new stage of development for Macau’s correctional services, the statement quoted Cheng’s speech as noting.
The new prison project, which took nearly 14 years to build and cost over two billion patacas, was launched in response to chronic overcrowding in Macau’s former jail. As early as in 2022, in response to a lawmaker’s question, Wong said that it was more comfortable to be a prisoner in Macau than elsewhere as Macau’s jail was too small for its inmates to work there, resulting in the fact that mainlanders imprisoned in Macau might not be willing to serve their sentences in the mainland, while local people imprisoned elsewhere preferred to return to Macau to serve their sentences here, rendering Macau’s prison even more overcrowded than they already were at that time.
According to the DSC annual report, as of the end of last year, the number of inmates at Coloane Prison stood at 1,331 – 1,122 males and 209 females. Macau’s prison is composed of a Male Detention Zone and a Female Detention Zone. Unlike the main prison, its Block 9 remains next to the Academy of the Public Security Force in Coloane Village. It functions as a special detention zone for confining inmates “requiring special detention”, according to the DSC website. Colloquially, Block 9 is known among locals as the city’s “VIP jail”. The youth detention centre next to the old jail is still operating.
The government has still to announce the future use of the old prison. All its inmates were moved by a convoy of vehicles under tight security measures on October 19.
The statement noted that the new prison is a smart facility with more space for educational and vocational skills training, with the aims of enhancing its security and management levels through the application of various advanced technologies and intelligent management measures, while, at the same time, providing inmates with more learning opportunities to help them reintegrate into civil society to a greater extent. The statement added that the new DSC premises would help enhance prison officers’ professionalism in law enforcement.
This handout photo provided by the Correctional Services Bureau (DSC) shows Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng (third from right), accompanied by Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak (second from left), Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário (second from right), DSC Director Cheng Fong Meng (left) and Public Works Bureau (DSOP) Director Lam Wai Hou, officiating at Friday’s opening ceremony of the new DSC headquarters in Coloane.
