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Mile Newell
Reflections on the Chinese Prison System 2006-2013
Webmasters Comment:

To give credit where it is due, I owe any computer skills that I may have to this man. He was head of the Prison Service Information and Technology Group (PSITG) when I joined it on secondment from HMP Leeds in 1988 as a Senior Officer alongside 48 other mixed bunch of mainly computer ignorant Prison Officers and treasury grades.  We were force fed computer skills under Mike's guidance.  This skill has provided me with an abiding interest and useful hobby in my retirement (15 years to date).

Thank you Mike.
In recent months there have been an exceptional number of stories about events in China. Most recently about Huawei, the Coronavirus and the treatment of the Uyghur Population in Xinjiang Province. Each event is reported in a manner that indicates China represents a threat to the Western World, without placing the events within the cultural and historical context of China, the most populated Country in the World. The response has made me reflect upon my time in China, when as part of the International Centre for Prison Studies, I was able to visit China on numerous occasions. Indeed I visited so many Provinces and Prisons I unintentionally became known as the Western ‘Professor’ who had visited more Prisons in China than anyone other than those who worked for the Ministry of Justice. As a result of that I am I think able to provide a unique perspective on Chinese Prisons run by the Chinese Ministry of Justice. 

My first visit to China was in January 2006 to speak at a Seminar at Beijing University on Work and Education in Prisons from a British standpoint. That Conference organized by the British Council came about because China had made two very significant decisions about the operation of Prisons. The first was that the work within Prisons would no longer be part of the National Production Plan, and secondly the remotely located camp style Industrial Prisons would be replaced by purpose built Prisons nearer to Population Centres. This was both a challenge for the Ministry of Justice and for Provincial Administrations. This was a Country that was due to host the Olympics in 2008 and had built virtually all facilities from scratch. It had also decided to reshape it’s economy by moving more than 200 million People from rural to urban areas, in new and expanded Cities, focused on increased production of Industrial Goods. When China decides to do something things happen quickly, whether it be high-speed Trains or building new Isolation Hospitals for Coronavirus Patients in 10 days!

All the views expressed in this Article are personal, based upon observation, experience and extensive discussion with Prison Staff, Directors and quite a few Prisoners. They are not based upon any Academic Theory or Research.

There are frequent (and understandable) references to Human Rights abuses in the treatment of Prisoners in China. I need to begin by making it clear that if Prisons are a microcosm of Society as understood by Academics then it is natural that Prisoners in the System do not have more Rights than Citizens in the Community. China is a Single Party State and expanded Rights for Citizens are seen as a threat to that, consider for a moment the recent disturbances in Hong Kong.


I also need to be clear there are two Systems operating in China. The one operated by the MOJ China, with over 650 prisons holding around 1.65 million Prisoners, is the one I worked with throughout. All Prisoners in this System have been detained on the Authorisation of a Court or on transfer from Police Jurisdiction in Detention Houses. The second System is operated by the Ministry of Public Security and holds around 650,000 Prisoners. These prisoners include all those detained pre trial, those serving less than 12 months and those detained in Re-education and treatment camps, including compulsory treatment for drug misuse and Administrative detention. This is also the Ministry responsible for the administration of the Death Penalty. During my time in China I did not visit any of these Prisons, although I know Nigel Newcomen did in his role as the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

Whilst the numbers of Prisoners involved are colossal, the population of China is 1.4 billion and this produces an incarceration rate of approximately 160/100,000. If we compare this with the USA it has a population of 330 million and has 2.12 million Prisoners with an incarceration rate of 655/100,000. We can see that these two Countries hold over 50% of the World’s Prisoners. Size does matter in China, Guangdong the largest Province has a population of almost 115 million and over 135,000 prisoners, it is therefore not surprising that Prisons with a population under 2000 are rare, and Prisons with populations of over 10,000 are not uncommon. The women’s Prison in Guangdong, which I visited, had a population of 6,000 (there is only one women’s Prison per Province).

The Prisons in each Province are controlled by the MOJ, who set the Policy and Rules and Regulations, these are interpreted and administered by the Provincial Government who are responsible for delivery. As you might expect there is an ever-present tension, very similar to the UK distinction between Policy and Operations.

The Chinese System has some very distinct differences with Western models that draw unfair comparisons because they do not account for the differences in Asian and Western Cultures. China has a culture of Collective Responsibility where the Family and the Community are more important than the Individual, and indeed individuality in the past has been discouraged. This approach leads to a single rehabilitative model, which is based upon Confucian Philosophy.

Put simply this means that the reason someone is in Prison is because they did not know how to behave as Good Citizen. Consequently, their Rehabilitation is teaching them how to achieve this through a respect for the law, respect for Chinese Culture and hard work to make Reparation, as well as contributing to the Community. Rehabilitation is compulsory and an Individual’s personal progress and release is based upon this response. Education therefore includes the Law of the Land, classes in Chinese Arts such a calligraphy and watercolors, hard but productive Labour and respect for families.

Prisoners live in communal cells usually for 12-18, within this the Prisoners are organized in groups of 3, there are few personal possessions and very little leisure time. The Cell operates collectively in both its successes and failures, attracting rewards and punishments based upon the collective performances. The other Prisoners within the group monitor those who are at risk of self-harm.

When a Prisoner does not conform they are seen, their bad behavior is explained because they do not understand their Role as a Prisoner, and I have witnessed Prisoners in Segregation chanting the Prison Rules that they must learn by heart before being able to leave Segregation. This is a further extension of the Confucian approach. Segregation is harsh (but not brutal) and used often in contravention of conventions such as those appertaining to natural light.

Work is hard and on an industrial scale as is education. When Phil Copple accompanied me to China, and we visited a Young Offenders prison for 2000, he was amazed to see everybody in Education on a Saturday with facilities to cater for such numbers. There are a large number of old Prisons still being replaced, where the work and health and safety standards leave much to be desired, but throughout my time in China these were being replaced at a rapid rate. 

Much of our work was to progress the Human Rights Agenda in China and needless to say this was highly sensitive. China is not a signatory to any International prison standards, however we should not think the absence of this means that prisoners have no rights and are subject to arbitrary rules. Indeed there is an 
obsession with following the Rules and ensuring standards are met.

Much of this comes from the culture of Compensation and Blame. Every Prison I visited had the same Targets: no escapes; no deaths (including suicide); no incidents of health or hygiene; no corruption and no concerted indiscipline. There is a long history in Chinese Culture of the payment of Compensation when adverse events occur, and in the past this has meant that Prosecution can be avoided by paying Compensation. Of course should the State fail in its duty then it will pay Compensation and those responsible will lose their jobs. In Chinese Prisons this fear fuels a complete no risk environment. 

The concept of Resettlement did not exist when I first went to China as the focus was on completing the Sentence, and transitional arrangements involved risk and Governors had no discretionary powers. By the time I left each Province had been instructed to open a Resettlement Prison, however it was the internal regime that was focused on preparation for release, and there was little or no involvement from the Community or change to the Governors’ powers.

There is no independent scrutiny in Chinese Prisons. We have to remember China is a Single Party State and the idea of a devolved independent power to examine State responsibilities is seen as extremely dangerous to the operation of the State. For this reason, it is unlikely that in the short term there will be anything approaching an independent Inspectorate or a formal Ombudsman for Prisoners. I had the pleasure of speaking at a Conference for 80 Prosecutors in Shanxi province. I spoke about internal systems of accountability and Anne Owers (former Chief Inspector) spoke about external scrutiny. The Head of the People’s Procuratorate thanked us for our input and said China had a perfectly good system, which he thought was better. This does not mean there are not systems of complaint or scrutiny, and on all my visits to Prisons a member of the MOJ accompanied me from Beijing. It was clear that the senior staff were more nervous of what he was going to say or do than anyone else.

I am not naïve enough to think that we revolutionised the operation of Chinese Prisons, we did however provoke thoughts of alternative solutions to some of the problems our colleagues were facing. Much of this was achieved through the visits to the UK of over 100 senior Governors and Directors who had the opportunity to observe UK prisons and discuss with their counterparts the problems they faced. After all the key problems are the same: Security; Discipline; Staff Corruption; Suicide and Self Harm; Finance; Rehabilitation and Re-offending; Staff training; Public Perception. I learned that setting the Agenda for any meeting revolved around these issues. I also learned that doing business in China is entirely different and in the post Brexit years, where it is likely we will do much more business with China, we need to understand the model. In an open meeting with Prison Professionals the response was always the same, there had been no escapes, no incidents, no assaults on staff or prisoners, in fact everything was perfect. In private over lunch and dinner the discussions were very different.  

I began my time in China visiting to ‘Show Prisons’, where after a brief tour, I would watch a ‘variety show’ performed by the Prisoners. By the eighth year I was visiting Qinghai and Gansu provinces both with borders to Tibet and Xinjiang the most sensitive of regions. I found myself being escorted around a prison with a full SWAT squad because they saw all the occupants as Terrorists and were obsessed with my safety. It took 8 years to reach this level of trust and unfortunately we lost it all in 2015 because of decisions by the Cameron Government and the focus on Trade. Whilst I was out in China there was a large contingent of Professionals from all branches of the Criminal Justice System, including Police, Courts, Judges, Academics and Lawyers, each trying to improve aspects of life for those caught in the System. Progress was made, the use of the death penalty reduced, with less offences attracting the penalty, the concept of disclosure was introduced for defence lawyers, some modified PACE rules were introduced, and a requirement was placed upon prosecutors not to rely on Confessions alone and search for corroborating evidence. I myself spoke at a Conference in Wuhan about the prevention of Confessions extracted by torture. 

 
These professionals were from many countries. I understand many of those Countries have continued to fund their work and I am sure that progress has continued. To my knowledge the UK Prison Service has not been involved in further work.

I do believe that some of those who visited the UK from the younger generation will have taken forward and developed some of the ideas that were formulated through this work, and I am sure that in parts of China some Prisoners are benefitting from our work.

This is a very brief article about something that requires more time and space, more than an article but not quite a book.

 
MIKE NEWELL