Macau (MNA) – According to data provided by the Macau Correctional Services Bureau (DSC) to Macau News Agency (MNA), as of December 31, 2018 there were about 1,458 inmates held at Coloane Prison, 13.5 per cent more than by the same time in 2017.
Of the total inmate population, by the end of 2018 some 47.2 per cent or 687 originated from Mainland China, with the number of People’s Republic of China resident inmates seeing a considerable 52 percent jump from the year prior.
Meanwhile at that time, Macau SAR residents represented only 28.4 per cent of the total prison population with some 414 residents behind bars, although an amount 31.4 per cent higher than in the year prior.
A Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) report issued last year indicated that local resident inmates had a low integration rate, with the study indicating that of 171 inmates released in 2015 only 10 again received prison sentences in the next two years.
The third largest sector of inmates held by the DSC in Coloane comprised some 164 Hong Kong residents, or 11.2 per cent of the inmate population, with about three Taiwanese nationals also detained.
There was a total of 190 prisoners from countries and regions from outside of the Greater China region held at Coloane – 26.6 per cent more than in 2017 – of which, 71 were from Vietnam, 35 from the Philippines and 4 from Portugal.
As of the end of 2018, about 83.2 per cent of the inmate population was male (1,248), and 16.8 percent was female (210).
In an interview with weekly publication Plataforma Macau in July last year, the director of the Coloane Prison facility, Ng Ioi On, indicated that the prison had a maximum capacity of some 1,619.
Currently a new prison facility is being built in Ka Ho, Coloane, with local inmate capacity said to be increased to over 2,700 after completion.
Constructions works for the new prison started in 2010, with the first phase having been completed in 2016 for about MOP150 million (US$18.5 million).
The new prison second phase works were granted to Sociedade de Engenharia Soi Kun – a company headed by legislator Mak Soi Kun – and are currently ongoing, for an estimated cost of MOP1.1 billion and completion expected after 2019.
