Civil Defence (Detention) Regulations

There is established for all detention barracks a Board of Visitors.

The Board consists of not less than 4 and not more than 12 members.

Every member of the Board —

At least 2 members of the Board must be appointed from among members and former members of the Force.

The Minister must appoint a chairman of the Board from among the members of the Board.

Each member (including the chairman) of the Board is eligible for re‑appointment.

Any member (including the chairman) of the Board may at any time resign from his or her office by notice in writing to the Minister.

The Minister may at any time revoke the appointment of any member (including the chairman) of the Board, or fill any vacancy in the membership of the Board.

The functions of the Board are as follows:

The Board must visit a detention barrack at least once every month.

The Board may be represented by 2 or more of its members when the Board visits a detention barrack.

After each visit to a detention barrack, the Board must submit a report to the Director Manpower or any other person (who is an officer appointed to the Force) authorised by the Commissioner to receive the report.

The report must mention any irregularity observed by the Board in the management or operation of the detention barrack, or the treatment of any person serving detention in the detention barrack.

The commandant of a detention barrack must —

Every report of the Board must not be disclosed to any person other than a public officer who is authorised by the Minister or the Commissioner to see or comment on the report.

Subject to these Regulations —

The Director Manpower may, however, direct that persons referred to in paragraph (1)(a) shall be kept in custody in detention barracks and that persons referred to in paragraph (1)(b) shall be kept in guardrooms.

Before a person liable to serve detention under these Regulations is delivered to a detention barrack, the person must be examined by a medical officer.

The medical officer must certify in Form 1 set out in the Schedule whether the person is fit to undergo detention in a detention barrack.

On admission of an arrested person or a person liable to serve detention to a guardroom or detention barrack, the following procedures apply:

A person serving detention must be issued with clothing which serves as the person’s attire during the person’s detention.

A committal order of a person serving detention must be in Form 2 set out in the Schedule.

Subject to paragraph (2), an arrested person or a person serving detention is not allowed to keep in the person’s cell any article other than the person’s clothing issued to the person.

A commandant may permit an arrested person or person serving detention to keep any other article that the commandant deems appropriate.

An arrested person or a person serving detention is not allowed to wear any decoration, insignia or badge of rank on the person or the person’s clothing.

An arrested person or a person serving detention in a guardroom or detention barrack is allowed to write letters which must be sent through the commandant of the guardroom or detention barrack, as the case may be.

The commandant of a guardroom or detention barrack, or a person authorised by the commandant —

An arrested person or a person serving detention is not allowed to receive any parcel or any item without the approval of the commandant.

Any parcel or item approved by the commandant under paragraph (1) must be opened and examined by or under the authority of the commandant for objectionable content.

Any parcel or item not approved by the commandant under paragraph (1) must be returned to the sender, retained in safekeeping by the commandant, or disposed of.

A person serving detention shall be allowed one visit per week from members of his family.

The commandant may allow additional visits per week to the person serving detention from members of his family as he may consider consistent with security and discipline.

Visits shall be made during official visiting hours.

A commandant may issue an order in writing for the mechanical restraint of an arrested person or a person serving detention to prevent him from inflicting injuries to himself or others, damaging property, creating a disturbance or escaping.

Mechanical restraint shall not be ordered for the purpose of punishment.

Arrested persons or persons serving detention may be handcuffed to one another in transit.

An order made under paragraph (1) —

Mechanical restraint shall only be by means of handcuffs, except that the commandant may, when handcuffs cannot efficiently secure arrested persons or persons serving detention, order any other means or manner of restraint with the approval of and subject to such conditions as may be laid down by a medical officer.

An approval of a medical officer under paragraph (5) must be in Part 2 of Form 3 set out in the Schedule.

Mechanical restraint may be applied to an arrested person or a person serving detention before the issue of an order under paragraph (1) only in a case of extreme urgency when an order in writing cannot be obtained. The commandant shall in such cases issue forthwith an order in writing.

Any person who discovers the escape from custody of another or who has any knowledge which may assist in the apprehension of such person shall immediately report to the commandant.

The commandant shall forthwith inform any case of escape from custody to the police, the provost unit of the Force, his commanding officer and to the Director Manpower.

The commandant of a detention barrack may, on the application of a person serving detention at the detention barrack or an immediate family member of the person and on compassionate grounds, grant the person temporary release for a period not exceeding 48 hours from the detention barrack.

The temporary release period under paragraph (1) does not count as part of the period of detention served by the person.

A certificate of temporary release must be in Form 4 set out in the Schedule.

The commandant of a detention barrack may, on the application of a person serving detention at the detention barrack or an immediate family member of the person and on compassionate grounds, allow the person to leave the detention barrack under escort for such period as the commandant may determine.

The period under paragraph (1) counts as part of the period of detention served by the person.

An order for release under escort must be in Form 4A set out in the Schedule.

Subject to paragraph (3), a person serving detention shall be entitled to have part of his sentence remitted in accordance with the following provisions:

If, after deducting the period referred to in paragraph (1)(c) from the period of the person’s sentence of detention, the total period of detention is less than 30 days, the period of remission is equal to the number of days by which the person’s sentence of detention exceeds 30 days.

Any remission of sentence must be awarded upon the sentencing of the person serving detention.

For the purposes of calculating the remission, a portion of a day shall be ignored.

If a person serving detention misbehaves, the Director Manpower may, on the recommendation of the commandant of the detention barrack, and by an order for withdrawal of remission in Form 4B set out in the Schedule, withdraw the whole or any part of the remission awarded to the person.

Any person who commits a minor offence under regulation 23 shall, after being given an opportunity to be heard, be liable to be punished by the commandant with any one or more of the following punishments:

A person under close confinement shall not be allowed to leave his cell or to communicate with any other person without the permission of the commandant and shall only be allowed to read materials authorised by the commandant.

Subject to paragraph (2), a guard of a detention barrack must not use physical force on any arrested person or a person serving detention.

A guard may use such physical force as is necessary —

Where a guard uses a baton or any other object on an arrested person or a person serving detention in the circumstances set out in paragraph (2), the guard must attempt to strike only the non‑vital parts of the person’s body.

A medical officer must —

A commandant may, at any time, require any arrested person or person serving detention to undergo a medical examination by a medical officer for the purposes of ascertaining whether the person is suffering from, or is a carrier of, any infectious disease.

An arrested person or a person serving detention must comply with any requirement of the commandant under paragraph (1).

A commandant may, in the case of any arrested person or person serving detention who refuses to undergo a medical examination under paragraph (1) or refuses to provide any sample necessary for such medical examination, direct that the person be detained separately until the person has undergone the medical examination.

Where a medical officer ascertains that an arrested person or a person serving detention is suffering from, or is a carrier of, any infectious disease, the medical officer must immediately give a written report to the commandant.

A commandant may, upon receiving the written report under paragraph (4), direct that the arrested person or person serving detention be detained separately until a medical officer certifies that —

In this regulation, “infectious disease” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Infectious Diseases Act (Cap. 137).

An arrested person or a person serving detention who feels aggrieved about any matter may complain to the commandant.

It is the duty of the commandant to investigate any complaint made to him and take such steps to redress the matter complained of as appear to him to be necessary.

The Commissioner may order a person on whom a sentence of detention has been passed to be detained in a prison temporarily for any period not exceeding 7 days if —

The committal order shall be in Form 5 set out in the Schedule.

A person who is temporarily detained in a prison shall for all purposes be subject to the Prisons Act (Cap. 247) and any regulations made thereunder.

The authority committing a person serving detention to a prison shall order the return of the person to a detention barrack on the expiration of the authorised period.

The order of return shall be in Form 6 set out in the Schedule.

The commandant must cause to be entered in a register a record of the punishments imposed on every arrested person or person serving detention, showing, in respect of each person punished —

The register referred to in paragraph (1) must be open for inspection by the Board.

Before a person serving detention is discharged from a detention barrack, the person must be examined by a medical officer for any fresh marks, injuries or tattoos on any part of the person’s body which were not previously recorded upon the person’s admission or during the person’s detention.

The medical officer must immediately inform the commandant of a detention barrack if the medical officer finds any fresh marks, injuries or tattoos on the body of the person serving detention.