Chinese Prisons Get Woman's Touch

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, August 24, 2002

Chinese Prisons Get Woman's Touch

China's women prisoners are learning to get in touch with their femininity as part of their rehabilitation.

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China's women prisoners are learning to get in touch with their femininity as part of their rehabilitation.

"They are prisoners, but women too," says Huang Qinghua, a warden in a women's jail on the southern outskirts of Beijing.

With more than a dozen years experience, Huang knows that prisoners can lose their freedom, but not their female nature.

"They are sensitive, but in many cases their worries and tensions can be appeased by an understanding heart and small comforts," says the warden.

The prison's "soft" appearance includes a flower garden, a green area and a fountain pool in front of the complex.

"I had imagined a prison life to be shackled in a stinking cell," says Xu Ying (an alias), who was sentenced to 15 years for selling drugs three years ago.

That misconception was changed when she entered the prison, butshe was still overcome by depression at the loss of her freedom.

However, the photo of her mother consoles her every morning as she gets up and waters two evergreen potted plants at the start ofeach day.

"The prison allows us to choose a photo of our family and put it in a picture frame," says the inmate in her 20s.

The dormitory walls are painted blue and the windows and doors are all decorated with red paper-cuttings, which remind prisoners of Spring Festival in February. Plastic firecrackers hanging from the corridor walls add a more lively air.

"Beautiful things awaken a prisoner's sense of responsibility and a more caring attitude," says Huang.

The crime rate for women is much lower than that of men. Less than five percent of prisoners in China are women, living in 20 jails across the country.

Huang says that women are more likely to feel pressure with regard to human relationships than men, and more concerned with personal hygiene. Separate administration of women and men prisoners is key to alleviating women's psychological pressure.

According to Chinese law, women prisoners can be released on parole during pregnancy and lactation. Women's prisons in China are all staffed with gynecologists to provide medical care.

Despite personal differences, what most prisoners need most is to release emotional tension. To address this need, nearly every prison across China has designated a "Catharsis Day" to help prisoners relieve tension and anxiety.

In this women's prison, Catharsis Day falls every Thursday. On this day, prisoners are allowed to engage in disco dance, sing Karaoke, play table tennis and enjoy other forms of entertainment.

Xu Ying's favorite relaxation technique is listening to the ballet music of Swan Lake. "It is the most comforting pleasure in boring prison life."

Model prisoners like Xu are rewarded with more opportunities for leisurely family reunions. Xu has been allowed to have one dinner per month in prison with her family.

This type of psychological rehabilitation usually yields good results. Luo Dahua, a criminal psychologist with the China University of Science and Law, says that this type of emotional rehabilitation has become an effective psychological treatment forprisoners in China following experimentation with labor, ideological and educational rehabilitation.

Most women's prisons in China have set up psychological record archives and opened psychological clinics where prisoners can seekpsychological help. The Beijing prison system is lobbying for legislation that would require that all psychological counselors working in prisons to have professional licenses.

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