The Economist: Political prisoners are packing Hong Kong’s jails Many are strikingly young

For most of the past decade, Hong Kong’s prison population was in decline. In 2019 around 7,700 people were incarcerated, down from over 10,000 in 2009. A decrease in the number of illegal immigrants and a shift to treating drug addicts rather than locking them up contributed to the downward trend. But in recent years a new type of inmate has swelled the ranks of the prison population.