The Correctional Services Department (CSD) has not used tightened prison rules to ban any visitors or impose any restrictions on prison visits, the authorities said, after a visitor was allegedly denied permission to see an inmate.
In a statement published on Tuesday night, the CSD acknowledged that it had denied a member of the public permission to visit someone in prison that morning because the visitor “was not on the declared visitors list of the PIC,” or person in custody.
“According to the established mechanism, visitors must be declared visitors on the PIC’s declared visitors list,” the CSD said.
“Since the Prison (Amendment) Rules 2025 came into effect last Friday, the CSD has not invoked Rule 48 of the Prison Rules to prohibit any person from conducting visits, nor has it imposed restrictions or conditions on any visits.”
The new prison rules, which allow the CSD to restrict or ban a person from visiting an inmate on certain grounds, including safeguarding national security, took effect on Friday, just two weeks after the government proposed the amendments.
Separately, Ben – a pseudonym – told HKFP that he went to a prison on Tuesday morning with a friend to visit an inmate jailed for national security offences.
Ben said that he had confirmed with the CSD on Monday and last week that his name was on the visitors’ list of the person in custody.
“On Tuesday morning, after CSD staff checked my identity card and my friend’s, they said I was not allowed to visit because the person in custody had taken my name off the list, but my friend could still pay a visit,” Ben said in Cantonese.
He added that the detainee’s family had contacted the CSD to enquire what had happened.
New rules
Under the new prison rules, the CSD can restrict the visitation rights of religious leaders and lawyers if it sees a need to protect national security. Previous rules allowed a chaplain to visit a prisoner “at all reasonable times.”
Additionally, the CSD can apply for a warrant from a magistrate to bar an inmate from communicating with a legal representative, in person or in writing, as well as with anyone associated with the law firm concerned.
