The Correctional Services Department provides a secure, safe, humane, decent and healthy environment for persons in custody, including transgender persons, it said in a statement in response to a newspaper report.

The report in a newspaper today suggested a transgender person in custody had been maltreated.

Treatment including accommodation and searching will be arranged in accordance with the identified gender of a person in custody. If a person in custody requests special arrangements, it will be considered by the penal management according to individual merits and the expertise of a medical officer, clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.

In general, transgendered persons in custody will be accommodated in the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre’s Vulnerable Prisoner Unit to protect them from being disturbed.

They will be provided with basic medical care by medical officers from the Department of Health and correctional staff with nursing qualifications, and will be referred to visiting specialists or public hospitals for decisions regarding further treatment, including hormone treatment.

To prevent drug smuggling, separation arrangements will be considered for newly admitted or drug-prone persons in custody, for a few days of sanitisation.

Regarding the news report's allegations of maltreatment, the department said it takes it seriously and will refer it to its Complaints Investigation Unit.