Prisoner 'Hearing' enters jails in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Prisoner 'Hearing' enters jails in China

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An unprecedented criminals' "hearing" on whether prisoners can have their liver function tested, whether they can be allowed to go home at weekends and whether the elderly can be allowed to have their hair dyed etc. was recently held in Tilanqiao Prison of Shanghai municipality. Fifteen prisoners put forward their suggestions and requests on prison management.

It is the first time in China's several thousand years of prison history for prisoners to voice their opinions on the administration of prison, said warder Qiao Liguo of Tilanqiao Prison.

Now felons sentenced for 15 years or longer are under detention in Tilanqiao Prison, dubbed "Far East No.1 Prison" with a history of over 100 years.

Tilanqiao Prison held a hearing in mid-March for the upcoming implementation of the "10 measures for civilized law-enforcement". Attendants to the hearing were six responsible persons with the functional departments of the prison, including a deputy head of the prison. Meanwhile, all prisoners viewed the live telecast hearing through closed circuit television.

Prisoner surnamed Lin, once served as deputy head of a hospital in Shanghai, reviewed that he was then surprised at learning of the news about the prison going to hold "hearing". He said: Previously I only heard of hearings on price hikes for airplane and train tickets and did not expect that we prisoners could express our minds in this way.

In recent years, China's judicial departments, while being loyal to law, have placed increasing emphases on showing humane solicitude. Inmates are allowed to get married, psychological hospitals are set up in prisons, great efforts are made to clear "extended custody", and prisoners satisfying specified requirements are permitted to "serve their sentences at home", these personified measures indicate the constant progress of China's civilization of law, said Ma Zirong in the law circle in Beijing.

Prisoner surnamed Shen from east China's Jiangsu Province was also "astonished" by the holding of hearing. He has been ill at ease with the fact that his gray-haired parents have to come all the way for three days to meet him at the jail just for 20-minute talks each time. Shen's wife, who does not want others to know that her husband is put behind bars, has to ask for leave each time under different excuses for a visit to the prison. Shen expresses the hope that the prison can provide non-native prisoners with "green passage" for visits, and that prisoners of Shanghai can be allowed to meet their relatives at weekends. He also suggests that the prison strengthen management of police officers and the meeting time be unified.

The holding of the hearing made Shen and other inmates around him feel "the success of the hearing is beyond imagination" and gave them the first sense of making joint effort with warders to do a good job. Previously when initiating the proposals, they felt it was like fable for police officers to strengthen self-management according to prisoners' requests.

No matter how bad they are, prisoners are human beings whose basic human rights must be safeguarded, said warder Qiao Liguo at a plenary meeting of managerial cadres of medium level and above held one day after the hearing at which discussion was focused on how to transform feasible proposals into new rules and regulations.

Sources say that three of the 15 proposals have been put into practice and other feasible suggestions are being carried out.

Similar hearings will be held irregularly when new rules and regulations relating to prisoners are to be put out in prison to guarantee the basic rights and interests of prisoners.

In the past, China's prisons linked prisoners' basic rights and interests with their performance in jail, which deprived prisoners with poor performance of certain legitimate, necessary individual rights and interests. Hearings on the basic rights and interests of prisoners means a great progress made in China's prison management, said Prof. Wang Quandi, head of Law School of Fudan University.

By People's Daily Online

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