Acknowledgements

The main contributor to the Victoria Prison Collection is Dr. Samson Chan, who retired as Assistant Commissioner from the Correctional Services Department in 2006 after 32 years’ service.

We would also wish to thank specially Mr. Sin Yat-kin, CSDSM, Commissioner of the Correctional Services Department; Mr. Chow Chung-yin, Hillman, Government Records Service Director; the Information Services Department; former CSD Commissioner Mr. Pang Sung-yuen, SBS, CSDSM; Mr. Law Hau-leung, CSMSM and Mr Lee Siu-on, CSMSM for their contributions to this collection.

Biography of Dr.Samson Chan

Dr. Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1951. Graduated with a Social Work Diploma from the Hong Kong Baptist College, he joined the then Prisons Department as Prison Officer in 1974. He finished his PhD degree from the University of Hull in 2013.

During his services with the Prisons Department (renamed to Correctional Services Department in 1982), Dr. Chan had performed various duties ranging from custodial, prisoner welfare, after-care, security, staff welfare, staff training, human resources and finally headed the Rehabilitation Division before his retirement in 2006. He was awarded the Hong Kong Correctional Services Medal for Meritorious Service (CSMSM) in 2000 and the Hong Kong Correctional Services Medal for Distinguished Service (CSDSM) in 2006.

Dr. Chan has particular interest in the history of punishment and had traced Hong Kong’s pre-War penal history in his 1994 Master dissertation “Development of the Hong Kong Penal Policy and Programme under the British Administration (1841-1945)” which was widely cited. Together with his recent PhD thesis “Colonial Penality: A Case Study of Hong Kong’s Penal Policy and Programmes under British Administration (1945–1997)”, Dr. Chan has provided a complete analysis on the penal discourse in Hong Kong whilst a British colony from 1841 to 1997.

PUBLISHED WORK

CHAN, S. (1993) ‘Prison Administration’ in Fong, W., Byrnes, A., Edwards, G.E. (Eds.), Hong Kong’s Bill of Rights: Two Years On, Hong Kong: Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong.

CHAN, S. (2000) ‘China (Hong Kong)’ in Institutional Treatment Profiles of Asia (Ed.), The United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI), Japan: UNAFEI.