Coloane prison | Gov’t considering surveillance cameras in private cells

The Correctional Services Bureau, the agency responsible for maintaining Macau’s detention services and inmates, is proposing that the government installs surveillance cameras in private cells at the Coloane prison.

While the proposal is still being studied for its “feasibility,” the chief of the bureau admits that cameras in private cells might conflict with privacy rules.

“We are going to study the feasibility of installing surveillance cameras in the prison’s individual cells and we will see if it goes against [violates] the relevant laws”, said the director of the Correctional Services Bureau, Cheng Fong Meng, according to public broadcaster TDM. “Of course, we won’t install the cameras in toilets and bathrooms.”

Cheng added that he believes installing the cameras in private cells “won’t conflict with existing privacy rules.”

The move comes after a mainland prisoner at the facility was found to have hung himself in the fourth such suicide case at the Coloane prison in the past decade.

According to TDM, the prisoner had been incarcerated on December 2, but had also been subject to three weeks of medical isolation after contracting a communicable disease.

The bureau head also expressed his condolences yesterday to the deceased’s family members.