CKPC Inspiring Seminar: Macau Prison System
Mr. Carlos Malvas, senior advisor at the Macau Prison Director's Office, gave an insightful talk on February 27 at CKPC's Inspiring Seminar Series. Mr. Malvas came to Macau from Portugal some 28 years ago, helping to strengthen and modernize Macau's correctional system. He recalled stories from the days of triad war before the 1999 revert to mainland China. He led the effort of recruiting retired Gurkhas, who were from the regiment of the British Army, to handle tough inmates belonging to triads.
Macau's prison system is unique in that it has a single custodial facility for adult offenders, making it difficult to segregate cells of different security levels. In the last 9 years, Macau's prison population has risen from 172 per 100,000 residents in 2010 to 220 in 2018. A unique feature of the inmates is that 55% are non-residents who entered Macau legally (mostly from mainland China).
Many crimes were somehow related to gambling. For example, quite a few illegal immigrants were gambling addicts. Some property thefts were associated with gambling (e.g. stealing chips). The official study, however, showed that over 60% of crimes in Macau had no connection with gambling.
Macau is building a brand new prison in Coloane that can house some 2000 inmates. It will be equipped with modern security facilities. Rather than just relying on hardware, Mr Malvas emphasized that social rehabilitation of inmates should be included in the overall correctional system.
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