The Chinese Prison System I Know
By a Dafa practitioner in Guangxi Province
The following are facts I've learned about the Chinese prison system. Most
are my personal experiences. Some were learned from my cellmates. 1. Detention Center The inmates in the detention center are classified into three groups:
administrative detainees, criminal detainees and arrestees. Administrative
detainees do not need to take off their clothing items like leather shoes and
leather belts when admitted. Criminal detainees are not treated as leniently, as
the moment they arrive at the detention center, the guards force them to remove
all their clothing and submit to a body search. The police use pliers to pull
open zippers and metal closures on the clothes, resulting in many of the clothes
being badly torn and damaged. The most ridiculous thing at the center is that there is a large bamboo
basket near the door of the check-up room which the guards call the "trash
bin." Inmates are not allowed to bring any valuable personal items like
gold rings, watches, leather shoes, leather belts, or jewelry into the cell. The police do not behave like they do on TV, and register your personal
belongings for you. Instead they tell inmates to throw their possessions into
the "trash bin." Some people's personal items that are worth several
thousand, or even ten thousand yuan, are thrown into that bin. Of course it is
pretty obvious where all this "trash" eventually ends up. A pair of my
good running shoes were lost this way. At the time I realized where the
so-called used shoes at the night market came from. But even the police in other
branches do not know this fact. Goods are for sale to inmates in the detention center, but they are twice as
expensive as in the market. Beer and cigarettes are also sold there. But the
cigarettes are fake, not tobacco. Everyone is barefoot unless they were wearing
slippers when admitted. All other shoes are thrown into the "trash
bin." The wealthy inmates can buy slippers sold there. The poor inmates
walk barefoot, and are forced to jog and do drills barefoot every morning. When
it rains, the hardship is even more severe. The food is also very poor. The allowance for each meal is 150 to 200 grams
of cooked rice with several pieces of green vegetables and a little meat each
week. Within ten seconds of the meal being served, even before I began to eat,
some had inmates had already finished theirs. My work at the center was stringing lantern beads. I was forced to thread two
pieces of copper thread through a hole in a plastic base, and then position the
thread equally to both sides of the base. Because the thread was thin and the
hole was small, it was hard to pierce and I always pricked my hands. The
assignment was 2-4 bags each day, each bag containing 1000 pieces. The older
inmates' assignment was half this much. Most people cannot finish the assigned
work, and they have to work overtime at night. Some even worked until three or
four a.m. However, if there is a Dafa disciple inside the cell, the inmates will
help each other. Many inmates, including the heads of the cell, sincerely feel
that Falun Dafa is good. They respect Dafa disciples very much. 2. The "Take In" Center Our local "take in" center was once used for brainwashing classes.
The classes lasted more than two years, and illegally detained a large number of
Dafa disciples. Some practitioners were sent from the "take in" center
to forced labor camps. After being released from the labor camps, some were sent
back to the center, and then returned to the labor camp again. At that time the center was mainly for detaining prostitutes and their
customers. The term lasts from six months to two years. From the experience of
some inmates here, we can see the chaos of the Chinese judicial system. One
young man was a taxi driver. He drove a customer to a "hair salon" to
see a prostitute, then waited for him outside the door. Then the police came to
arrest customers of the prostitutes. The driver was also detained for six
months. Another detainee was the head of a construction contracting company. He
was arrested for consorting with a prostitute and asked to pay a 3000-5000 yuan
fine. He thought he would be detained for at most fifteen days, so he refused to
pay the fine. As a result, he was detained for two years. Actually the detention
term is totally dependent on the whim of the police. There is no formal policy
at all. Sometimes the police directly send the inmates to the detention center
without mentioning the fine. Almost all the inmates here are from other places,
and the police dare not take in local people because their family members could
make trouble. The detainees are forced to do work such as threading lantern beads, tilling
land, and carrying mud. Since the "take in" center is for
administrative penalties, the work is not heavy. 3. Drug Rehabilitation Center I did not personally go to the drug rehabilitation center, but I learned a
lot about the center from many drug addicts who were sent there. The drugs addicts call our local drug rehabilitation center "the darkest
prison in Southeast Asia." The guards do not supervise the center directly,
as other inmates, known as "big brothers," supervise this area. There
is no so-called study or education inside. The drug addicts only work hard to
make money for the guards. The assignment for stringing lamp beads is seven or
eight bags per day. It is quite common for newcomers to work around the clock
without sleep to meet their quota. Only if they work quickly enough, can they
earn time to sleep. If someone cannot finish the assignment over the long term,
and if beating them every day also doesn't motivate the inmate, only then were
they allowed to change to another job. The "big brothers" do not need to work. Their work is to supervise
others. If inmates cannot finish their work assignments, the "big
brothers" beat them or have someone else beat them. The "big
brothers" carry around large wooden clubs at all times. They check up on
work progress in the afternoon. If anyone has not completed enough work, the
"big brothers" beat them on the spot. The drug addicts have to give
most personal items that are brought to them by their family members to the
"big brothers," while keeping only one or two bags of instant noodles.
The guards actually cover up all these facts. Both the guards and the big
brothers have beaten inmates to death, but since the center has a death quota
every year, all the incidents were covered by paying out some money. When higher authorities come to inspect, the center does something to ensure
a favorable review. For example, there is usually no meat for the inmates, but
during the inspection a big slice of meat will be put into every inmate's bowl.
But the inmates are told beforehand, "You are not allowed to eat it!"
Then when the inspection is over, all the meat is collected. Some inmates were
so starved that they ate the meat. As a result, they were beaten first, then
thrown into a pool to soak, then exposed to the hot sun. According to the law, the term for drug rehabilitation is three months. But
in this center the drug addicts were released after three months only if their
family paid 3000 yuan. Without payment the term would be extended to one or two
years. I once heard that the center director's two sons both died a violent death.
People who knew the facts called it karmic retribution. 4. Forced Labor Camp These forced labor "re-education" camps are intended to combine
labor with "education." But in Chinese labor camps, there is only
labor without education. As the cadres, (1) the police at the forced labor camp
describe their mission, "We educate people by labor." In fact, it is
nothing but a money-making tool of the police department. There are numerous reports on the internet of how labor camps have treated
Dafa practitioners. The cadres secretly do many evil deeds. They have other
inmates monitor or watch "untransformed" practitioners around the
clock, but after some time many of the monitors become practitioners' friends.
Some even help practitioners transmit information outside the camp. When the
evildoers suspect this they change the monitor, but the result is the same. Many
practitioners' monitors were changed more than ten times. In fact many inmates
know that the cadre are evil. The most common way to deal with "untransformed" practitioners is
depriving them of sleep. They are put in a small cell every day, and brainwashed
by one or two brainwashing specialists and cadre members. If the practitioner is
sleepy, he will be pushed to wake him/her up. According to practitioners who
experienced the process, it is somewhat like hypnotizing, making one dazed,
unable to think normally, so one is more apt to be brainwashed. On the women's team, practitioners are not allowed to drink water, except for
the small amount of water in the vegetables served at each meal. Sometimes they
are beaten in secret, but the cadres deny everything. There are all kinds of work in the labor camp, including making colored
lanterns, knitting sweaters, making cloth toys, embroidering slippers, and
grinding gems. Other miscellaneous work varies with the season. Stringing lantern beads, as I mentioned above, is part of making colored
lanterns. Making colored lanterns is one of the main activities in the labor
camp. During holidays there are decorations with lanterns and colored banners
everywhere. Can you imagine that most of the beautiful lanterns are made by
inmates under extremely arduous conditions? It is the same with embroidered
slippers, cloth toys, necklaces, strings of beads, the stones mounted in
utensils, and so on. The work assignments in the labor camp are the amount one can finish from
7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Some inmates can finish the assignment after dinner, but
most need to work until 11:00 p.m. or midnight. It was once heard that someone
on the women's team died from exhaustion. After that, the labor camp gave an
order to stop work by 11:00 p.m. But actually, every team forces inmates to secretly work past 11:00 p.m. For
example, the inmates in the gem team had to get up at 5:00 a.m. and go to bed at
2:00 a.m. next day. Even so, the director stated in the monthly meetings,
"Our team's output last month is less than some other teams. This month we
need to make greater efforts." Extending or reducing the terms of detainment is chaotic in the labor camps.
Any cadre member can alter an inmate's term for any reason. The cadres
arbitrarily extend steadfast Dafa practitioners' terms. However, after all the
practitioners protested these actions, the cadres restrained themselves
somewhat. Even so, every practitioner's term was extended, and some were
extended the maximum of one year. (1) Cadres are the police in charge of the forced labor camps in China
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/10/27/87708.html
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