The problem of overcrowding in Hong Kong correctional facilities is determined by a number of external factors beyond the control of management. These include the population boom, the political and social climate of neighboring countries, changing social and economic conditions in Hong Kong, judicial interest in and social attitudes toward certain offenses, and sentencing options. Active steps taken to deal with overcrowding involve the provision of adequate accommodations through imaginative resource use, long-term planning for new penal institutions, the enactment of legislation to provide different treatment programs for different inmate types, prisoner classification, the provision of new facilities and methods to maintain proper supervision over inmates, improved staff training and professionalism, the provision of monitoring bodies and channels for complaints and grievances, and the provision of a humane prison regime. Prisoners are categorized according to four types: prisoner whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public, prisoner for whom the highest security conditions are not necessary but for whom escape must be made difficult, prisoner who cannot be trusted in minimum security conditions but lacks the ability or resources to escape, and prisoner who can reasonably be trusted to serve his or her sentence in minimum security conditions. Historical developments in Hong Kong's correctional services from 1841 to the present are briefly reviewed. Appendixes contain data on the prison population in Hong Kong.