AN OVERVIEW OF CHINESE PRISON CONDITIONS

What are prison conditions like generally?
Prison conditions vary hugely. It is most likely that a foreign national would be held in one of the better prisons. Foreign national prisoners are generally held separately from Chinese prisoners. However, there is often no hot water in the men’s facilities and the available cold water is often insufficient to launder clothes.
Cells are said to be freezing in winter and stiflingly hot in summer as there is no separate heating or air conditioning. In some prisons, prisoners are held 2 to a cell and each cell has its own balcony. In others, cell-mates sleep communally on a raised platform or on the floor.
Some cells do not have enough room for all the prisoners to lie down at once, and many are so crowded that there is less than one square meter per prisoner. There is no furniture in the cells and the lights are on twenty-four hours a day.
Lice, mosquitoes are a problem in Chinese prisons and many prisoners suffer from scabies.
In some institutions, prisoners must sit silently most of the day.

What food and drink is provided and what else can be obtained?
Prison guards run stores in the prisons selling essential items, cigarettes, foods such as dry noodles, fired fish/meat and candy. The prices are usually expensive.
Prisoners are provided with 3 meals a day.

What about health and hygiene in the prisons?
Health Care: Prisoners can obtain medical treatment in prison or in community hospitals. Medical care is free and prisoners receive a health check once a year. A clinic is provided in the prison and experts are brought in if required.

Hygiene: Prisoners are required to provide their own bedding, towels, toothpaste, soap, sanitary towels, and other daily necessities. Although it is possible after sentencing to secure prison uniforms, generally prisoners supply their own clothing to which prison stripes are affixed. After sentencing, all male prisoners routinely have their heads shaven.

What are the opportunities for work?
Under Chinese law, all prisoners who are able to work must do so, but prisoners who are unable to work because they are old, ill or otherwise unfit to work do not participate in work. It is unlikely that this 'opportunity' to work is given to foreign nationals. In 1990, about 10% of the prison population did not participate in work activities. Some of the prisons offer opportunities to work in the laundry, the print shop and work making clothing, road signs and shoe; the wages are meagre.

How does a prisoner receive and have access to money?
The safest way to send money to an inmate is through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (http://www.uk.cn/bj/index.asp?menu_id=2&artid=15) (UK citizens) or the US Consulate (http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/acs_services.html), Australian Embassy (http://www.austemb.org.cn/indexe.htm), Canadian Embassy (http://www.beijing.gc.ca/beijing/en/navmain/consular/offices/index.htm) (or relevant contacts). Please contact directly for further information.
(For UK citizens only) The money must be sent as a postal order, bankers draft or in cash to the desk officer for China at the Consular Division at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. The consul in China will be notified of the money deposit and will arrange for the inmate to receive the money in local currency. It is difficult to judge how long this process will take. It is usually no longer than three weeks but in some cases may only be taken in quarterly by the Consular staff on a visit and held in the prisoner's account at the prison to be used as required.

How can visits be arranged?
Pre-trial detainees are not allowed to receive visitors; packages can be sent but their contents will be scrutinised. Once sentenced, prisoners can receive monthly family visits lasting from twenty minutes to an one hour, depending on the facility. The Law on Criminal Reform stipulates two visits a month lasting 30 minutes. Visits should be arranged initially through the nearest Consular representation, who will contact the relevant authorities. Generally prisoners can get two 20 minute visits per month but sometimes the authorities, if requested by the Consulate, will grant additional visits.

What are the regulations concerning letters, parcels etc?
Local newspapers are available in detention centres. Once sentenced, a prisoner may subscribe to approved papers and receive approved books and magazines. Telephones are never available to prisoners. Prisoners are entitled to receive letters and parcels from friends/relatives but individual
prisons have differing regulations about receipts of parcels. In most places, food cannot be sent in.

Letters and papers from organisations (such as Amnesty International, Prisoners Abroad (http://www.prisonersabroad.org.uk/index.html), universities etc.) are not
allowed.

What are the opportunities for education/training in the prisons?
Prisons have sufficient educational facilities for only a fraction of the prison population. Since 1981, the Chinese government has included education of criminals in its national education program.
Where conditions permit, special educational institutions are set up for formal and institutionalised legal, moral, cultural, and technical education of prisoners. By the end of 1991, 72.82% of all prison and reform-through-labor branches had established such special schools. Each school has a dean, teachers' office, and a teaching program and curriculum prepared each term, each year.
Prisoners study about 2 hours a day. Teaching staff are especially selected for the school; some are chosen from among the prisoners with a higher education level.



Information taken from Prisoners Abroad Factsheets

What type of legal system is there in China?
The legal system in China is based in the old Soviet model. There is a complete network of public security bureaus, people's procuratorates and courts in mainland China who have responsibility for apprehending suspects, investigating and judging criminal cases respectively. Not all cases are tried by the courts, some suspects are subjected without trial to periods of administrative detention which may be as long as 3 years. It is however unlikely that a foreign suspect would be subjected to this procedure.

Basic principles: The Criminal Procedure Code is the relevant criminal legislation. In the Criminal Law, crimes are classified into eight categories according to the object of the crime:
1) Crimes of counterrevolution, which are crimes endangering the People's Republic of China such as treason, espionage, and mass rebellion;
2) Crimes of endangering public security, which are crimes endangering the life and wealth of many people, as well as the security of public and private property, such as arson, breaching dykes, explosions, spreading poison, causing traffic accidents, illegal manufacturing, trading in or transporting guns or ammunition, and causing major productive accidents;
3) Crimes of undermining the socialist economic order, which includes smuggling, speculation, falsely passing off trade marks, and illegally chopping down trees;
4) Crimes of infringing upon the right of the person and the democratic rights of citizens, such as homicide, bodily injury, rape, forcing women into prostitution, abducting and selling people, unlawful detention of another person, unlawful intrusion into another person's residence, falsely accusing and framing, defamation, insult and humiliation, giving false evidence or testimony, and using torture to coerce a statement;
5) Crimes of property violation, such as robbery, stealing, swindling, corruption, and extortion by blackmail;
6) Crimes of disrupting social order, such as disrupting public affairs, official documents, certificates or seals, harboring criminals, concealing stolen goods, hooligan activities, and gambling;
7) Crimes of disrupting marriage and the family, such as bigamy, abuse of a family member, abandonment, and abducting a child; and
8) Crimes of dereliction of duty, such as bribery and subjecting imprisoned persons to corporal punishment and abuse.

In addition, Criminal Procedure Law categorises crimes into Crimes of Public Prosecution and Crimes of Private Prosecution.

Drugs offenses, as defined in the Criminal Law, include the manufacturing, selling and transportation of drugs. Heroin and opium are the most prevalent drugs that are sold. Using drugs is not a criminal offense. As an amendment to the Criminal Law, the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the Strict Prohibition Against Narcotic Drugs includes holding drugs (possession) or taking actions to lure, instigate, deceive and/or force others to use drugs as among drug-related crimes.

Does China have the Death Penalty?

The death penalty continues to be used extensively and arbitrarily as a result of political interference. People are executed for non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and pimping as well as drug offences and violent crimes. The authorities continue to keep national statistics on death sentences and executions secret. By the end of the 2004, with the limited records available, Amnsety International had recorded 1,639 death sentences and 726 executions, although the true figures were believed to be much higher.

Execution was by shooting and increasingly by lethal injection. In March 2004 it was reported that the authorities in Yunnan province had purchased 18 mobile execution chambers for execution by lethal injection to improve the “efficiency” and “cost-effectiveness” of executions.


How is the case investigated? What happens during the remand period?
The Public Security Bureaux are responsible for investigations, detention, arrests and preliminary inquiries into criminal cases. Procuratorates are responsible for authorising approval of arrests, conducting investigations and initiating public prosecution of cases.

What provision is there for bail?
There is no bail for foreign nationals and the criminal procedure does not specify the methods of bail for Chinese citizens. The court, procuratorate, or public security may decide to grant bail after taking into consideration the nature of the crime and the likelihood of the accused escaping the investigation. The most common way of securing bail is by finding an individual guarantor, as bail in the form of a provision of money is less acceptable in China. Although the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law allows for the possibility of obtaining a guarantor pending trial, this rarely happens.
It is worth noting that bail is not a subject that is discussed openly, not even for Chinese people.

What kind of legal assistance is available?
Although China is trying to develop a legal aid system, coverage is patchy and the quality of many legal aid lawyers is poor. It is unlikely that a foreign suspect would receive legal aid.
The accused may appoint a full or part-time lawyer, or even his relations or guardians, as his defence counsel. In cases where it feels necessary, the court may appoint the accused a lawyer.
Legal aid is provided only in limited categories of cases. Such situations include where the accused is a minor, suffers from deafness or some other disability, or where the procuratorate is present. The lawyer appointed by the court will not necessarily be qualified, and there is no requirement that the court appoints a lawyer.

What happens at the trial?
There are 2 court appearances in a trial. From the first appearance, there is a maximum of 6 weeks allowed until the second appearance but the court can apply for an extension of up to one month. The sentence is given at the second appearance. At the trial, the Public Security Bureau present their investigation, the lawyer presents the defence. A bench composed of 3 judges hears the case. The procedures can be subjective and sentences vary from court to court and town to town.
Under the Criminal Procedure Law, regardless of their nationality, suspects have the rights to use their native spoken and written languages in court proceedings. Cases where the suspects are foreign are tried by Intermediate People's Courts (courts of 'first instance'). Trials are conducted by a collegial penal composed of three judges or of judges and people's assessors. Cases of first instance should be heard in public unless they involve state secrets or the private affairs of individuals. At the trial, the public prosecutor reads the bill of prosecution, the defendant and the
victim may present statements, and the public prosecutor may interrogate the defendant. Evidence is then given to the court by witness testimony and in the form of material evidence. Judgment is announced publicly, either in court on the same day as the trial concludes, or at a later date usually within 1 1/2 months after acceptance of the case; this may be later in some circumstances.

How can appeals be made?
Once sentenced the accused can appeal only once and it should be made within 10 days from when the written judgment is received. The appeal is then heard within 6 weeks. Although there is an appeal process, it is rare that the initial decision is overturned. If the defendant refuses to accept the decision of the initial court, s/he has the right to appeal to the next higher level court.
Prisoners can petition after this or their family can.

What provision is there for reduction of sentence e.g. for good behaviour?
This is dependant on the prisoner’s behaviour during detention; remission is at one third and is granted by the courts on recommendation from the prison authorities. Remission is considered once a prisoner has served 50% of his/her sentence. Once one reduction has been granted, an additional year of good behaviour will result in the prisoner being awarded the title "reformed activist" and a substantial reduction in sentence a year later.

What provision is there for early release e.g. on parole?
This is dependant on the prisoner’s behaviour during detention.

What provision is there for clemency or pardon?
Petitions for clemency should go to the Foreign Affairs Bureau. However, amnesty is unlikely.
Occasionally, a National Pardon is issued by the Communist Ruling Party.

What about any financial penalties?
The law says that, "If a prisoner sentenced to a fine fails to pay the fine within the time limit, the court shall compel him/her to pay. If s/he has difficulty in paying because s/he has suffered an avoidable disaster, an order may be made to reduce the fine or exempt her/him from payment." It
is not clear how this provision operates in practice. It appears that prisoners may serve extra time for non-payment of fines.

Is transfer to the UK or to another prison a possibility? If so, what are the provisions for this?
Please contact the relevant Consulate for more information on each country's prisoner transfer treaties. Transfer to another prison in mainland China may be a possibility.

What are the procedures for release and deportation?
Prisoners are deported at their own expense. They are sometimes only informed the day before although long-term prisoners may be given advance notice of their release date and can plan.
Prison guards escort them to the airport and through the formalities to the plane door very quickly.




Information from Prisoners Abroad and Amnsety International