Deceit and Murder in Jilin Prison

Jilin Prison is the shortened name for "Jilin Province Second Prison." It is located at 100 Junmin Road, Jilin City. There are 11 prison districts in the prison and each is divided into three sub-districts. Jilin Prison has been openly violating the law and extending working hours by forcing inmates to work overtime. Each district specializes in the following labour tasks: the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Districts in making clothing; the 5th District in riveting and welding; the 6th District in making car parts and accessories; the 7th and 8th Districts in labour outside of the prison; the 10th District in prison food preparation; while the 11th District is for the old and disabled.

Being poorly equipped and under-resourced, Jilin Prison resorted to desperate measures to deceive its superiors, deliberately creating the false image of an enlightened management while deceiving upper management teams and inmates' family members. In 2004, it also made eight open promises to society, which were not kept.

On the surface Jilin Prison is in good condition, yet its management is in a big mess. Since the number of inmates has to reach 5000 for it to become a ministry-level prison, Jilin Prison has engaged in deceitful actions.

A high-priced supermarket, claiming to offer "convenient service"

Jilin Prison forbids inmates' family members from bringing in necessities and food. Inmates can only deposit money and make purchases in the prison supermarket, where prices are terribly high. For example, a kilogram of apples is 3 yuan (compared to 1 yuan outside), a cotton sweatshirt and pants set is 80-90 yuan (compared to 10 yuan outside), and a roll of bathroom tissue is 8-9 yuan (compared to 1-2 yuan outside).

A dark and shameful corner in Jilin Prison

The 11th District, the district for the old and disabled, is a special area where conditions are very poor. More than five hundred inmates and fourteen practitioners are being detained. They go all year round without daylight. From the outside the building looks like a large storage warehouse and has only one big iron gate. Whenever inspectors or outside visitors are in the prison, normal mealtimes are postponed until after they have gone, and the iron gate is locked to make it look like no one is there.

This district is so poorly equipped that it lacks water for washing dishes. This means that after eating, inmates usually scrape their bowls with leftover steamed buns. Also, those who are incapable of taking care of themselves cannot wash, so they become very dirty. Besides the extremely poor hygienic conditions, there is no sunlight or fresh air at all. It is cold in the winter and humid in the summer, and there is a stench in the air. In each sub-district, 130 inmates are jammed onto a big flat bed with only about 60 square centimeters of living space for each person.

There is an even worse area, the so-called "Nude Area," where inmates who cannot take care of themselves and a practitioner from Changchun, Yang Guang, who was tortured and disabled because of his belief in Falun Dafa, are kept. They are of no value to the prison and receive terrible food because they can no longer work. Their sleeping space is even smaller. Since they cannot take care of themselves, they are kept naked all year round and live in their excrement. They have fleas and scabies and some infectious diseases are spreading among them. The jailors only enter to check on them about once a week. As there is only one exit from this area, a fire or other accident could lead to unimaginable consequences.

Brutally killing and persecuting innocent people

On the surface, Jilin Prison promotes enlightened management and publicly claims to be well equipped and "civilized." Actually this is an evil den where innocent people have been brutally killed.

Since July 20, 1999, more than 100 Falun Gong practitioners have been detained here. Four of them (Liu Chengjun, Wei Xiushan, Zhang Jianhua and Cui Weidong) are known to have been tortured to death. Many others have been injured or disabled as a result of torture.

When practitioners are illegally detained in the prison, each prison district first conducts brainwashing classes and forces them to write the so-called "Four Statements."(1)

Prison police's reward and implication policy (2)

Led by Warden Li Qiang, the main culprits who have persecuted practitioners include Political Committee Secretary Liu Wei, the new Chief of the Education Bureau Li Zhuang, and police officers from the Education Bureau Li Yongsheng and Wang Yuanchun. They claim, "In Jilin Prison, although we might let you live for six days, it will surprise us if you are still alive on the fifth day."

The prison assigns team leader and two inmates to carefully monitor every steadfast practitioner's actions. If they accomplish a "transformation" in the designated time, they receive reward points. For example, an inmate would get three merit points, which is equivalent to a sentence reduction of four or five days, while a team leader would get six merit points. If they fail to transform the practitioner, all of the team will be implicated, as well as the sub-district and district. These conditions, as well as connivance and coercion by the jailors, result in inmates punishing, violently beating, and cruelly torturing practitioners.

Places in the prison where practitioners are tortured

Practitioners are detained in prison cells designed for solitary confinement. The "Correction Centre" and "Strict Discipline Team" are places where jailors brutally torture practitioners.

Brainwashing, forced labour, denial of visitation rights, torture, and barbaric force-feeding

In Jilin Prison, criminals who do not seek a reduced term can avoid forced labour with merit points. However, this does not apply to practitioners.

When it's time for a brainwashing session, practitioners who have refused to do hard labour must do so or be sent to the "Strict Discipline Team," where the torture is increased.

On July 10, 2004, Jilin Province's 610 Office made its way into Jilin Prison and forced practitioners to undergo brainwashing for ten days. Practitioners who refused this were sent to the "Strict Discipline Team" or put in solitary confinement, where they were suppressed and subdued. Others were denied family visitations. On September 24, practitioner Mr. Sun Qian from Dehui City, Jilin Province, held a hunger strike to fight for his visiting rights. As a result, he was sent to the "Strict Discipline Team" to be cruelly tortured.

Mr. Sun again held a hunger strike on October 20, 2004. The jailors inserted a tube into his mouth and injured his nose, causing it to bleed. They force-fed him with a thick saline solution. After this they stopped supplying him with water. The prison guard said, "I don't care what kind of demands you have, you'll be force-fed if you don't eat."

On November 15, 2004, Jilin Prison imposed brainwashing sessions on all practitioners. First, they had so-called "political conversations" by playing video programs that attacked Falun Dafa. Then they sent practitioners to the "Strict Discipline Team," where they were tortured. Mr. Liang Zhenxiang, a practitioner, had already been sent there. Other practitioners have not been able to see their family members because they refused to compromise.

Another practitioner, Mr. Wu Keli, is currently undergoing a brainwashing session. After a month he has totally changed: he has a dull look in his eyes, his body is extremely weak, and his arms and legs have become so numb that he has lost control of them. The prison doctor said that he has inflammation of the nerves in his arms and legs, which may lead to partial or complete paralysis. The jailors said that cases like this are common in this prison. Because Wu Keli wrote an appeal letter protesting his illegal sentence, a police officer from the Education Bureau, Li Yongsheng, went to him with the letter and forced him to change his mind. By November 15, 2004, Mr. Wu had suffered this kind of mental torture for thirteen days. Previously, no one was able to endure brainwashing for more than eleven days. They were transferred and detained in solitary confinement, the Correction Centre or the "Strict Discipline Team" for cruel torture within eleven days.

Practitioner Mr. Liu Jingxin, Jilin Province, is a graduate of the Changchun University of Science and Technology and used to work in the Biotechnology Institute. Police from the Changchun Luyuan Park beat him brutally for practising Falun Dafa and subsequently sentenced him to three years and six months in prison and had him fired from his job. He is being detained in the "Strict Discipline Team" in the 2nd District in Jilin Prison. The first time his family members visited him, they discovered that he had been viciously beaten up.

Mr. Wu Yifeng, a forty-year-old practitioner, is a chairman and professor at Changchun Architectural University. He is the most famous bridge engineering expert in Jilin Province. The authorities searched his home and found a computer. Consequently, the Changchun Public Security Bureau interrogated him using torture. The policemen assaulted him, tortured him with a plastic bag over his head, and poured cold water over him to revive him after he passed out. Then they forced him to sit on a Tiger Bench. The police cuffed his hands behind his back so that he could not move them, and then violently forced his arms through a 360-degree turn to the front, dislocating both of his arms. Mr. Wu was in such great pain that his whole body was shaking. When he arrived at the detention centre, his hands were severely swollen and unusable. He was later sentenced to a thirteen-year prison term. In October 2003, Mr. Wu was sent to Jilin Prison. The supervisors of both Changchun Architectural University and Changchun City stepped forward to bail him out on the condition that he write a so-called "Guarantee Statement," but he solemnly refused to cooperate. Since he remained steadfast, he was brutally tortured on a "Stretching Bed" (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/11/4/54186.html for more information). During the Spring Festival of 2004, he was transferred to Jilin Province's Siping Prison to undergo further persecution.

Law enforcers breaking the law and recklessly killing innocent people

At the beginning of 2003, Jilin Province beat an inmate to death on the grounds that he had refused to do hard labor by pretending to be sick. After an autopsy it was discovered that he had actually been sick but the authorities did nothing about it.

A Jilin Prison jailor accidentally revealed the following information. In February 2004, a practitioner in the 8th District who was spotted reading Falun Gong articles was beaten to death and his body was left unattended in the boiler room. Another practitioner in the 9th District was also beaten up and lost two teeth for reading articles. A third practitioner in the 9th District was knocked to the ground and lost four front teeth for shouting, "Falun Dafa is good." When the practitioner requested disciplinary action be taken against the inmates, one of the guards said, "They only knocked out four teeth. If it were me, I would have knocked them all out."

The "Sitting Bed" torture

A "Sitting Bed" is a small stool with sharp-edged metal bars around the seat (see http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/11/4/54186.html for more information). Someone sitting on the device has to keep his or her back and neck straight. If they move slightly the torturer will beat them. Many practitioners were forced to sit on the stool until their buttocks were torn and tattered, with the bones exposed. A person has to stretch his legs and sit still on the hard flat bed each day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., except when eating meals or relieving themselves. No padding is allowed on the bed, and practitioners also have to recite prison regulations within a designated time. If they refuse to cooperate, jailors transfer them to a wooden stick or board, which causes their buttocks to wear out even faster.

The "Shackling Up" torture, cigarette burns, hung in the air with hands cuffed behind the back

To force practitioners to compromise, jailors force them to sit on the floor under a bed, stick their heads through the boards and use the bed boards to hold their necks firmly so they cannot move. If practitioners insist on continuing to practise Falun Gong, the inmates freely hit them on the head with their hands, fists or bed boards. Since they can't move, they can only sit there and get beaten. Some practitioners' teeth were knocked out and others' noses and faces were swollen from the beatings. If a practitioner refuses to write the statements renouncing Falun Dafa, they are detained in solitary confinement or sent to the "Strict Discipline Team." They also burned practitioners' chests with cigarettes and hung them off the ground suspended by handcuffs, which held their arms behind their backs.

The "Stretching Bed" torture

The "Stretching Bed" is the most brutal instrument of torture in Jilin Prison. The jailors tie the practitioner's arms and legs to a special bed with four rings. They fix the practitioner's hands and feet inside the rings and put pressure on them. Then the practitioner's body is raised above the bed by stretching all four limbs and extra pressure is then applied. The person loses consciousness within a few minutes. After 10 minutes the joints, muscles, flesh, and skin are all separated, and the person becomes permanently disabled. Afterwards, they do not allow anyone to help these practitioners with their daily living requirements.

Practitioners Sun Qian, 36, a resident of Dehui City, and Liu Zhaojian from Baishan, Jilin Province, have both been put on the "Stretching Bed," after which their hands and feet became disabled, and they were then transferred to the "Old and Disabled" District. The feet of another practitioner from the 9th District became permanently disabled after this torture. Many practitioners have been tortured with the "Stretching Bed."

Practitioner Mr. Yang Guang disabled by torture and left naked all year

Mr. Yang Guang, 50, is a resident of Changchun City. He was given a heavy jail sentence for his belief in Falun Dafa. The policemen in the Changchun City 7th Precinct interrogated him by using various types of torture and beatings. After his right leg was broken from these beatings, he couldn't move, so he had to be carried by the police into the prison, and he developed femoral necrosis. Later, he was detained in the "Old and Disabled" District. Now he also has ulcerated and deformed toes and can no longer take care of himself.

Mr. Yang does not wear anything from the waist down all year round. Due to paralysis in his lower limbs, some inmates made a small four-wheeled cart for him from iron ducts and wooden boards with a hole in the sitting area so he can relieve himself. When he needs to do so, the inmates roll the cart into the toilet and leave him there unattended. Since he cannot reach to clean himself, he constantly lives in filth. Along with mental patients and inmates disabled from torture or who have lost their ability to take care of themselves, he lives in this area through the heat and cold of the seasons and without any daylight all year around. For them, a day goes by like a year.

For those unable to take care of themselves, occasionally the "Old and Disabled" District staff put them in a bathroom, spray them with a hose, and wipe them with towels that have tacks in them. Their bed sheets are "cleaned" by throwing them on the wet bathroom floor and stepping on them.

Jilin Prison has tried hard to prevent information from reaching the public, and they have lied to higher management teams and inmates' family members. They have attempted to create the outer appearance of being a "civilized prison," while actually being a "living hell" where practitioners have been brutally killed and persecuted.

These revelations about Jilin Prison are only the tip of the iceberg. Over one hundred innocent practitioners are still enduring extreme torture and being insanely murdered.

Address of the Jilin Prison Administration Bureau: #46-1, Xinfa Road, Changchun City, 130061
Appeal Office: 86-431-2750074
Chief: 86-431-2750001
Secretary Xu: 86-431-2750003
Section Chief, Yu De: 86-431-2750018
Supervising Politics Section, Jilin Province Jail Administration Bureau: 86-431-2750062
Physical location of Jilin Prison: #100 Junmin Road, Jilin City 132012
Mailing address of Jilin Prison: P.O. Box 315, Jilin City 132012
Tel: 86-4324881551;
Prison Political section: 86-4322409418
Procuratorate in Prison: 86-4324881515 Fax: 86-4324881559
Secretary Section: 432-4881559

(Note: For fear that more might learn the truth, Jilin Prison authorities have recently stopped automatic transfers from the main phone line: 86-432-4881551. However, their phone number is still 86-432-4881551. If you dial this number, please just ask to be transferred to a specific department.)

Prison police in charge in Jilin Prison (newly assigned):
Jilin Prison Warden: Li Qiang
New Secretary of Political Committee: Liu Wei
New Bureau Chief of Education Bureau: Li Zhuang
Policemen in Education Bureau: Li Yongsheng and Wang Yuanchun

Notes:

(1) "Four statements:" Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write these as proof that they have given up their belief. Created by the 610 Office, they include a letter of repentance, a guarantee to never again practise Falun Gong, and a list of names and addresses of all family members, friends and acquaintances who are practitioners

(2) "Implication policy:" In ancient Chinese feudal society, there was an "implication law," which meant that if one person violated the law, all of his family members and friends would be punished. The punishment ranged from exile to the execution of entire families

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/12/5/90719.html