This Day, That Year

Item from Dec 15, 1984, in China Daily: Beijing Prison has for the first time allowed a prisoner to have a holiday at home.

As a reward for being a “model prisoner”, Xiao Jiamo, a 43-year-old inmate who received 12-year sentence for corruption in 1976, was given the five-day holiday last week.

Prison authorities have strengthened construction of security facilities and protection of convicts’ rights in recent years.

The latest official data showed, as of 2012, the country held 1.64 million prisoners in 681 prisons, and employed 300,000 prison officers. The number of inmates they house has risen steadily since 2005.

Prisons have helped convicts become literate and receive a basic education since 2008 and some of the inmates received vocational training.

The Ministry of Justice has issued a series of regulations meant to safeguard the rights of inmates. It has set food, sanitation and clothing standards, and outlawed physical punishment, bullying and humiliation in prisons, according to the ministry. Under a weekly schedule, prisoners have five days of labor, one day for study and one day for rest.

In 2015, a total of 31,527 prisoners, most of whom were juveniles when they committed crimes, were released under an amnesty agreement released by the top legislature.

Besides prisons, conditions at detention facilities have also been improved. Psychological counseling rooms have been built in more than 2,000 detention houses across the country.