A. Rights of prisoners
The rights of prisoners are governed under the Prison Rules (Cap. 234A).
The Correctional Services Department provides all persons in custody with daily necessities adequate for maintaining a decent and healthy living for their custody and rehabilitation.
Persons in custody are allowed to receive certain articles from their visitors upon visit, the approved articles are stated under the lists of Approved Hand-in Articles. Due to security measures, all similar hand-in items must be mixed to the pool together for random distribution to the concerned persons in custody.
There is no limit to the number of letters a person in custody can receive. A prisoner may write and send as many letters as he wishes to any person. However, he can only send one A4 letter of a maximum of four pages per week at the public expense. If he requests to send additional letters, he has to pay for the stationery and postage out of his earnings.
Each prisoner can only keep 20 cards in their possession at a time, any extra cards will only be given to them upon their release or be disposed of.
A person in custody may receive a maximum of 6 magazines, periodicals and other general reading materials per month. There is no limit on the number of devotional books he can receive while textbooks are allowed in any approved quantity.