[1][2] To help alleviate prison overcrowding, the military base was converted into the minimum-security Lo Wu Correctional Institution, which upon completion in August 1997 had a capacity of 208.

Hence, the government developed plans to redevelop the Lo Wu Correctional Institution to provide a total of 1,400 penal places, an increase of nearly 1,200.

The new facility began operation on 2 July 2010, when the first 135 inmates arrived from Chi Ma Wan Correctional Institution, which was subsequently closed for redevelopment.

[9][5] The chief executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, formally opened the rebuilt Lo Wu Correctional Institution on 24 August 2010.

[5] Located in a rural area with no public sewer system, Lo Wu Correctional Institution was built with its own membrane bioreactor sewage treatment plant.