The Persecution of Dafa Practitioners at Shijiazhuang No. 2 Prison

The prison officials from all the prisons and labour camps in China have been persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners both psychological and physically, and Shijiazhuang No. 2 Prison in Hebei Province is no exception.

Many Falun Dafa practitioners are being illegally imprisoned at Shijiazhuang No. 2 Prison. The environment there is bad. Practitioners are being closely monitored and controlled. Because the perpetrators are afraid of being exposed, physical tortures are no longer being applied openly. However, the psychological persecution has been intensified.

Around February 1, 2005, the leader of the No. 3 Squadron of the women's prison, Yi Jinxia, announced that groups of three people could use the toilet at the same time, but no two Dafa practitioners can be put in one group. This announcement led to protests from all the practitioners. Practitioner Chen Shufeng went on hunger strike; another practitioner, Yi Yuhui, refused to participate in any work, and other practitioners also went to the squadron leader to express their protest. Three days after Chen Shufeng started her hunger strike, the No. 3 Squadron published the group assignment so that practitioners could no longer go to the toilet together. Practitioners are being monitored even more closely than before.

One time, practitioner Pan Lizhu was deceived by a criminal inmate, Du Chongmei, and showed her some Falun Gong articles. Afterwards, Du reported Ms. Pan to the prison police. Around March 10, 2005, Pan Lizhu lost most of the articles she had hidden from the guards. The squadron leader suspected that the articles were passed from the No. 4 Squadron, since the two squadrons usually have lunch fairly close to one another. As a result, the squadron leader paid closer attention to the practitioners, and also closely inspected any items that were brought into the prison. Around April 25, 2004, for more than ten consecutive days, everyone was body-searched after work. Although the guards claimed that they were searching for things such as knives, they were in fact searching for Falun Gong articles. This was because an ex-practitioner, Li Wenrei, handed over all her Falun Gong articles to the prison authorities. Li also told the police that another practitioner, Zhang Zhe, had Falun Gong articles and she told them where Ms. Zhang had hidden them. During the Labour Day and the National Holidays, all the inmates were strip-searched for Falun Gong articles.

There are many regulations in the prison that are specially set up to keep practitioners from communicating with each other. For example, all the inmates must take turns using the toilet in pre-assigned groups. (There were 13 groups taking turns, and there could be no more than two practitioners in each turn.) No one can enter or exit the dormitory areas other than during designated hours. Inmates that are working in the Handcraft Workshop and Packaging Workshop no longer stop work at the same time, and they must have their meals separately from those who work in the Cloth Workshop. The people in the three workshops cannot get water at the same time; they must take turns. Practitioner Yi Yuhui was assigned to the Handcraft Workshop because she refused to work, and two people were assigned to monitor her. All of the above rules are intended to limit contact between practitioners so that they may be "transformed". (1) In fact, these rules are all violations of human rights.

There was a report about practitioner Bai Yuzhi who went on hunger strikes multiple times. She almost lost her eyesight from the persecution before she got out of prison. In the prison, all practitioners must do the same amount of work regardless of whether they are "transformed" or not. But those practitioners who refuse to be "transformed" receive less than one fifth of the pay compared to those who are "transformed."

The prison regulation states that a prisoner can have meals with visiting family members at the prison cafeteria after one year of imprisonment. (The price of the cafeteria is several times more expensive than outside. The purpose is to make money for the prison.) But practitioners who refuse to be "transformed," or those who have not met the requirement of "transformation," are not allowed to have meals with visitors.

The majority of the cases mentioned above happened at the No. 3 Squadron of the Third Women's Prison Section, Shijiazhuang No. 2 Prison.

Telephone Numbers:

Shijiazhuan No. 2 Prison, switchboard 86-311-83831916;
No. 3 Squadron: 86-311-83831916 ext. 6214 (leader Yi Jinxia)
No. 3 Squadron Mailing address: P.O. Box 133, (383 sub-box), Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, Post Code 050091
No. 4 Squadron Mailing address: P.O. Box 133, (384 sub-box), Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, Post Code 050091

Note:

(1) "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/6/29/105083.html