Pilot program set to improve rights inspections of prisons

A pilot program to introduce random inspections of prisons will be established in July in eight provinces and municipalities to further improve supervision, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on Thursday.

The inspections will focus on the education and labor rehabilitation of inmates, the supervision of security precautions, the prevention of inappropriate restraint and confinement and the protection of inmates’ legitimate rights, said Wang Songmiao, a spokesman for the top prosecuting body.

Prosecutors will also review evidence for parole and sentence-reduction hearings, as well as hearings for inmates applying to serve their sentences outside prison — open only to pregnant women and new mothers, severely ill individuals, and disabled people in need of full-time care — whom they will also

Wang said.

Basing prosecutors in prisons used to be the main form of supervision of penalties and rehabilitation. As of April, prosecution organs at various levels had set up 667 prosecution stations in prisons for regular supervision, covering 97 percent of China’s prisons, the procuratorate said. Though it improved supervision and strengthened protection of detainees’ rights, the system also had some problems, Wang said.

“Prosecutors are relatively fixed and lack the necessary staff turnover,” Wang said. “Some are even permanently stationed in a prison and are familiar with the work conditions, which leads to their lack of supervision sensitivity. They are unwilling to or dare not supervise.”

Prosecuting departments involved in the pilot program will form teams of prosecutors from those already based at prisons to conduct random inspections of other jails to help supervise, protect the legitimate rights of inmates, the procuratorate said. Teams of prosecutors not attached to prisons will also be formed to cross-check those inspections.

If accidents, such as an abnormal death or escape, occur, the prosecutors will conduct a special inspection in a timely manner, the procuratorate said.

The program, which will run from July to May next year, will initially be run in areas including Shanghai and the provinces of Liaoning, Hainan and Sichuan before being expanded nationwide.

Zhou Wei, deputy director of the SPP’s Criminal Enforcement Prosecuting Department, said any improvement in the procuratorial mechanism for prisons stemming from the pilot program could be applied nationwide in the future.

“The progress of the inspections can be published, allowing the public to supervise the process,” Zhou said.