'Celling' Points Auger Well for Prison Service

Officials and reporters from Beijing This Month were invited to the Beijing Remand Prison and the Beijing Prison, 20km south of the city in Daxing District, by The Beijing Prison Administrative Bureau of China. The Beijing Prison is the only prison open to foreign visitors, 200 of whom from 125 countries have been inside its gates since its opening in the early 1990s.

These visitors have included officials from human-rights organizations and international judicial authorities, and the leaders of foreign states -people given to asking pointed questions and expecting straight answers. We did the same and, initially to our surprise, found our main host Guo Jitang, vice-director of Beijing Prison Administration, and other senior officers totally frank about Chinese prisons' shortcomings as well as recent improvements.

Beijng Remand Prison
The first surprise at the Beijing Remand Prison was that, apart from conventionally barred shared-dormitory windows and other necessarily secure low-level blocks, it did not look anything like the generally perceived notion of a grim and depressing jail.

While athe high perimeter wall gave hint of its function, the main gate led to well-maintained grassed flower-bedded lawns -some with life-size statues of animals -and sports/recreation areas linked by wide tree-lined roads and neat pathways. Not Disneyland, obviously, more along the lines of an enclosed military barracks made stern by warders' doing what they are trained and paid to do -ensure that inmates adhere to the strict disciplines that rule their lives during the months they stay here.

As prison director Yang Hua explained: "This remand institution is the first stop for every prisoner, including those who live in Beijing. Government policy is the punishment and reformation of prisoners through supervision, education and labor.

"Prisoners are here for two months to learn about prison rules and to get used to prison life, then they are sent off, by train or coach, to other prisons to serve their sentences. Usually they go to a prison as close as practicable to their home to enable family visits as part of their rehabilitation. To date, some 5,000 prisoners have been transferred to other jails. We also keep prisoners from other parts of China who have committed crimes in Beijing. Our other main tasks include arranging proper medical treatment for our own inmates and those from other jails."

Punishment and Reformation
As at any prison in the world, it is fundamentally the "carrot and stick" approach, punishment such as loss of privileges for those who step out of line, rewards for those of consistent good behavior who try hard at their daily mandatory education classes (500 hours per year pro rata), which include the laws of the land, and who show that they genuinely wish to reform and rehabilitate themselves as honest, hardworking citizens. Inmates' privilege levels are adjudged under a points system. They may also be paid for their work.

We saw, and on occasions were allowed to speak to, numerous prisoners. Mostly they were in well-drilled squads looking for all the world like military platoons getting from point A to point B at a brisk trot, chanting or singing as they went. All looked fit and healthy but, as was to be expected, not particularly happy. Smartly uniformed eagle-eyed officers maintained tight discipline with barked orders and the occasional face-to-face berating of anyone seen putting less effort into the exercise than required.

Such scenes were in sharp contrast to a 30-minute song-and-dance show arranged for us in a prison hall that is also used as a theater. All the entertainers were the equivalent of, in prison jargon, "trusties"-talented men, mostly quite young, who by definition had through good behavior and diligent academic and other studies earned the right to apply and enjoy their skills on stage. They ranged from well-rehearsed dancers to a trained vocalist, and smiled hugely at the applause they rightly earned.

Pillow Talk ...
We also toured some dormitories, two of which were inhabited, where we were invited to talk to selected inmates. One admitted he was "learning a big lesson" in being incarcerated, and another said he felt bad for "bringing shame" to his family.

Officials volunteered the information that one particular dorm contained two more two-tier bunk beds than the usual six or seven due to a slightly higher prison population than normal.

Noticeable here as elsewhere was that all prisoners stood strictly to attention when spoken to or passed by.

Some outstandingly well-behaved inmates also earn conjugal visits during which they enjoy total privacy in what seemed the equivalent of a two- or three-star hotel room from which they can order meals of their choice. Pleasing was that the room we viewed had obviously not been "tarted up" to impress us, witness an empty flower vase and the last occupants' tea tray. And we were ushered well away from a room that was occupied.

The Beijing Prison, whose role is also officially described as a model advanced prison for those who have committed felonies and misdemeanors, has had no escapees either from its original Tianjin location or from here.

"The majority of those who find themselves here come from poor backgrounds where jobs may be short, and where they turn to crime to get by," said Zheng Zhaolin, director of the prison administration's news and information office. "When they are subjected to our disciplines and genuine attempts to instill the values of honesty, personal honor and justice into them, they usually feel grateful that someone cares about them.

Productive Citizens
"The basic environment here is in the cause of punishment combined with rehabilitation. We want inmates to return to society as productive citizens. All their activities are supervised and geared to reform. Changing their outlook is sometimes difficult, but gradually the message gets through. Our recidivist level [habitual law-breakers who return to prison again and again] is very low, just two percent." The infraction rate (violating prison rules) is less than three percent.

Asked about his longer-term vision of Chinese prisons overall, Zheng said: "We all want to see them more humanized and modernized. It is a huge challenge, but China is continually proving that it can achieve things that were never thought possible."

The senior officers we met at Beijing Prison were obviously high-caliber, the exception rather than norm in the country's prison service. Probably the least envied person connected with the service is Wang Heng-qin, party secretary of the Central Institute of Prison Police Officers in Hebei Province, which trains guards to run prisons across the country.

Currently the institute has 5,000 students and Wang more than anyone knows he and his 400 staff face a daunting task in raising professionalism in China's much-criticized prison service, which has never attracted the nation's brightest and best. Standards have suffered as a result. Being a prison guard is not seen as a career to be proud of.

Wang has already spent five years striving to improve standards and public perceptions in face of constant criticism about poor management and allegations of human-rights abuses. But he is making headway. Last year his institute was allowed by the Ministry of Education to award a bachelor's degree to graduates. Prison officers generally see this development as a major achievement because it promises to attract competitive candidates and boost the social status of prison officers.

"I hope that by 2010 our academy can be upgraded to university status with a good international reputation," Wang is reported as saying. "We have engaged in exchange programs with developed countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Japan, Germany and Canada, hoping to learn more about advanced management methods. In many countries, key prison officers are required to have at least two degrees, one in legal studies and another in penitentiary management."

Another boost is that while financial problems have beset standards in Chinese prisons, 2001 saw the country's central leadership order the State Development Planning Commission to allocate 40 million yuan (US$37.6 million) to Wang's institution. Last year it received a further 228 million yuan for a project to expand the institution's campus.