Archived
Report downloads in English (pdf) and in Chinese (pdf).
This publication is a sister report to Behind Bars: A Survey on Detention Centre Conditions in China (in English, pdf), which follows the same survey, interview and case study format to look at human rights failings in the country’s detention system.
[...]
To mark Mandela Day this weekend, Safeguard Defenders is releasing a new study that reveals exploitative working conditions, political coercion and physical and psychological abuse in China’s sprawling prison system.
Behind Bars: a survey on prison conditions in China, based on a survey of 59 former prisoners, paints a grim picture with respondents describing abuses and violations of both international law and Chinese law and regulations. Its findings should be a stark reminder for foreign governments considering security agreements or extradition arrangements with Beijing that such cooperation is incompatible with fundamental human rights principles.
Mandela Day, held on 18 July (on Nelson Mandela’s birthday) honours his life’s work fighting for social justice and human rights. The day is also an important date for prisoner rights—Mandela spent 27 years as a political prisoner in South Africa during the Apartheid years, and the key UN document on the treatment of prisoners was officially renamed the Nelson Mandela Rules in 2015.
[...]
In addition to the survey, Behind Bars also draws on a longform interview with former Australian detainee Matthew Radalj, a comparative analysis of domestic and international law and a case study of a large prison in central China that has been at the heart of recent international allegations of forced labour.
“The truth is that xxx prison is not a prison with factories, but factories with a prison,” one survey respondent wrote, adding, “ In Chinese prisons, guilty and innocent are treated just like animals, with not even basic rights.”
[...]
At a time when China’s authoritarian surveillance state has been deleting sources of public data and made it more dangerous for people to share their testimony, Behind Bars shines a light on what really goes on in Chinese prisons. It is an important addition to the body of research on the widespread rights violations perpetrated on those incarcerated in the country.
With China typically sentencing around 850,000 people to prison time every year in one of their 680+ prisons, the scale of abuse is potentially massive. Estimates put the number of people serving time in China at around 2.34 million, likely making China the country with the largest number of prisoners serving time in the world.
[...]
One respondent wrote, “I was not treated like a human being at all.”
Radalj said that when he was in solitary confinement, he was Tasered “almost on a daily basis” and that he was “chained for the entire 194 days” around his leg.
[...]
The Chinese prison system heavily emphasizes ideological education and expects prisoners to produce thought reports, such as letters of repentance, statements of confession and essays outlining support and praise for the CCP.
More than three quarters of respondents said they had to write thought reports when they were in prison. Education provided for prisoners was more often propaganda in nature and focused on CCP ideological education rather than being vocational in nature and helping them develop skills so they can find work upon release.
Prisoners who refused to write thought reports or whose written works were not deemed sufficiently “politically correct” or remorseful were typically punished, for example by not being able to apply for sentence commutation, having their shopping quota cut, the cancellation or reduction of time for a family visit or phone call and even physical punishment and/or solitary confinement. One respondent said they were denied medical attention because they did not write a confession letter.
[...]