Macau Matters | The New Ka Ho Prison

Richard Whitfield

I note with interest the recent sit-in by a subcontractor complaining about construction and progress payment delays on the project to develop a new prison at Ka Ho on Coloane Island – I have been wanting to rant about this topic for a while!
Generally, I believe that criminal justice systems exist to deter crime and reduce re-offending and punish criminals at least cost to the community. I am not a big fan of prisons, though, because they seem to encourage recidivism while not deterring crime too much and being very expensive to run.
As yet another example of needless government secrecy, I cannot find out anything about Macau’s prison system online – no information on the prisons and prison population, no statistics on crime rates and punishments for different crimes. No information on whether prisoners are mostly locals or tourists who have committed crimes while visiting Macau. Without this kind of information it is very difficult to form a reasonable view on whether a new prison is needed in Macau, or what the alternatives might be. Citizens should always “trust but verify” the work of their civil servants and, unfortunately, the competence of many can be seriously questioned.
Given the rising tourist numbers, and lesser rises in the local population, I can believe that crime is increasing. Further, I suspect, but cannot confirm, that many prisoners in Macau are tourists. If this is the case, why not return these prisoners to their home country to complete their sentences? This would be less costly for Macau, and means that these prisoners would be closer to their families. I understand that prisoner return arrangements are being negotiated for Hong Kong (and possibly China) but that the discussions are dragging. Again, getting information is difficult, but why don’t we make concluding these arrangements a higher priority than building a new prison in Macau.
Without information on crime rates and punishments it is impossible to consider whether there are alternatives to prison sentences. There is a lot of petty crime carried out by tourists – maybe barring these people from re-entering Macau is a solution than keeping them in prison here.
If, and this is a big if, we accept that a new prison is needed in Macau then I have several problems with the one being, very slowly, built in Ka Ho.
First, the site is on the side of a mountain and is about the worst possible place to locate a prison. I have never seen higher prison walls in my life, and guard towers are also humongous. I am baffled as to why this site was chosen. Second, the new prison seems to be about 5 times the size of the existing prison in Coloane Village – why is such a large new prison needed, on such an awkward site? This new prison seems to be a major case of infrastructure overkill.
Lastly, we have the contract to build the prison. Once again, the government publishes little about how it awards public tender contracts so it is difficult to comment. Nonetheless, there seems to be a problem with the main contractor for the prison project – not meeting completion deadlines and not paying sub-contractors. I understand that the government rarely has penalty clauses in its construction contracts, which totally amazes me.
Government contracts should always include severe penalty clauses, and they should be rigidly enforced. Failures of main contractors to pay sub-contractors should also not be permitted. Construction companies with a history of problems in this area should be banned from bidding for future government work.