The Crimes Committed against Practitioners at Zhejiang Provincial Women's Prison

All female Falun Gong practitioners who have been sentenced in Zhejiang Province are sent to Zhejiang Provincial Women's Prison, where they are subjected to intense persecution. The gate of the prison is deep in an alleyway and hardly noticeable by outsiders. It is a so-called "civilised prison at the ministry level" of the Chinese Communist Party. Let's look at how "civilised" this prison is.

In the prison, inmates in the Newcomers' Team, About-to-Be-Released Team, and the Elderly-Sick-Disabled Team go to work around 6:00 a.m. and return between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. (with two one-hour meal breaks). Other teams go to work earlier and return later.

A variety of products are manufactured at the prison. Most of them don't require much skill to produce. Such products include apparel, sweaters, rubber gloves, umbrellas, disposable chopsticks, spools of thread, toothpicks, decorative Chinese knots, etc. This type of labour is repetitive and time-consuming. Because huge quantities are required, one's hands and feet have to be swift in order to make them. Some inmates have suffered mental collapse due to long-term forced slave labour, and exhibit such symptoms as lethargy, seizures, uncontrolled yelling or rage. The so-called high-grade chopsticks and toothpicks are packaged under poor hygienic conditions, often by bare-handed inmates who have infectious diseases. (National food hygiene laws do not apply to prisons and detention centres in China.)

Since the Newcomers, About-to-Be-Released, and Elderly-Sick-Disabled teams are places where it is relatively "comfortable," inmates with some pull are concentrated in those teams. They are white-collar criminals--people who have been involved in monetary crimes, such as illegal fund-raising, embezzlement and tax evasion. They used to be rich or powerful in society, or their relatives have wealth or political pull. These inmates are often in certain "trusted positions" in the prison and are the guards' trusted subordinates. Every prison guard develops trusted agents among her own network, who spy on the other inmates and pass on all kinds of information and whose terms get shortened quickly.

To protect their own self-interests, these inmates immediately become privileged enforcers, monitors, and coordinating "instructors" of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. They sandwich practitioners 24 hours a day and record practitioners' every word and action, even their facial expressions and the movements of their hands and feet. The prison initially uses "soft tactics" to persecute and "transform¹" newly-arrived practitioners. Practitioners who have been "transformed" are required to work only half a day, or not at all, or not work on certain days of the week. They are taught wicked and deceitful "transformation" techniques. Hypocritical concern for them on the part of the prison staff is shown in the form of petty favours, such as being allowed face-to-face family visits.

The purpose of such seemingly favourable treatment is twofold. First, it incites other ordinary inmates' jealousy, which isolates practitioners. Second, the guards' long-term and hypocritical "concerns" and "earnest talks" can unconsciously dissolve practitioners' wills, especially those who have strong emotions. Practitioners can become confused and start to think things such as, "She is really concerned about my being released early. Could she be as evil as reported on the Clearwisdom website? Guard so-and-so is so nice to me; if I don't 'transform,' I'd feel I owe her." Thus, sooner or later, such practitioners are "transformed" and fall down completely.

In addition, such tricks are used to incite jealousy among practitioners, making it hard for practitioners to trust each other. But this attitude of "concern" on the part of the prison staff is completely hypocritical, and when firm practitioners don't fall for the "soft approach," the prison personnel unleash their true ferocity. Steadfast practitioners are subjected to brutal treatment such as solitary confinement, long-term sleep deprivation, excessive labour doing the most painstaking and hardest jobs, limited food and/or daily necessities, being subjected to criticising meetings, torture with electric batons, and cancellation of family visits.

Solitary confinement and sleep deprivation are the most commonly used tortures, regardless of the age or health of the practitioner. There are approval procedures and time limits for confining ordinary inmates. However, Dafa practitioners can be placed in solitary confinement at will and for unlimited terms. After several months of solitary confinement, a practitioner can be ruined both mentally and physically.

Another persecution tactic is to use the reading room in each prison division as a confinement room. Sometimes the whole division is vacated in order to confine one practitioner in each cell. Once, all the DVD players and TVs in the prison were used to "transform" practitioners. The prison rules of not closing doors and not covering the windows (in order to prevent inmates from fighting and committing suicide) are not enforced for practitioners. The doors and windows of all "transformation" rooms have been covered with heavy newspapers. Brutal persecution is carried out behind closed doors. Inmates think up all kinds of methods to deprive practitioners of sleep. Some women who look gentle become extremely vicious under the instructions of the guards, and inside the closed rooms.

Those once kindhearted and healthy practitioners become unrecognisable after undergoing these dreadful "transformation" tactics. Some practitioners suffer from symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease, some have a recurrence of their old illnesses. Some practitioners' health is failing because they are so regretful after being forced to "transform." Some former practitioners develop nervous conditions and easily lose their tempers. Every day they count down the days before they can be released from a worse-than-death situation. Do these "transformed" practitioners know the true cost of their promised term reductions?

The prison personnel, taking advantage of the "transformed" practitioners' desire to be released, force them to publicly "reveal and criticise" again and again. Through these so-called "trials," they are pushed even further down into hell. The prison organises "spring outings" for the "transformed" practitioners, allows them "home-visits," allows them to spend holidays with their kids, has them learn dancing and other qigong practices, and lets them listen to lectures given by monks and study Buddhism, etc. Under the pretext of "being concerned," the prison tries to exploit every angle to destroy anyone who has cultivated in Dafa. Such "transformation" measures have eventually worn down practitioners who have had to endure five or six years in prison.

The Zhejiang Provincial Women's Prison often has inmates hold activities like "art performances," beautifying the prison wards, and planting vegetation in the prison divisions. However, all the tools, equipment, supplies, plants, and cleaning materials come from the inmates' families. Even the inmates who are in charge of cutting hair have to buy their tools out of their own pockets. The prison won't spend a penny on these activities. The inmates, needing financial help from their families for their own day-to-day needs, and in order to appease the guards, collect points and get term reductions, ask their families for these provisions. The families, hoping their relative will be released from prison sooner, often provide more than needed.

The prison often invites TV stations to shoot video footage, which is publicised in the mainstream media. How many outsiders know that all the superficial beautifications come from inmates' own pockets? At so-called weekly "prison division meetings," the administration claims that they uphold "justice and the law" at all times. Looking at the list of term reductions makes the reality unmistakable. Power and money have their way in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prisons. Those who were sentenced for abusing power and money use their skills once again in prison. Even the "key inmates" who are favoured by the guards often comment, "We're becoming worse and worse in here." The tighter they get with the guards, the more they participate in evildoings, the more awful things they witness, and the more they realise deep in their hearts the madness of the CCP as it approaches its doom. Some have chosen to quit the Party, but some still choose to do evil out of self-interest even after they realise that Falun Dafa is good and should not be persecuted.

There have not as yet been many articles revealing the crimes at the Zhejiang Women's Prison. I think it is largely due to the special "soft tactics" that it uses. I hope that Falun Gong practitioners who are imprisoned there will not be deceived by the hypocrisy and, instead, wake up and continue to cultivate.

To the guards at Zhejiang Women's Prison: As wives, daughters and mothers, don't forget the gentleness and kindheartedness that are the true characteristics of women. Don't ever ignore your conscience in favour of the pursuit of self-interest. Please listen quietly to Falun Gong practitioners' compassionate calls and find your true self. Cherish your life and the lives of your families. Don't go further down the path of evil.

Guards at Zhejiang Women's Prison who participate in the persecution:

Feng Jialing

Huang Hong

Zhong Jian (pronunciation)

The Criminal investigation group of Hangzhou Public Security Bureau-in charge of arresting practitioners in the Hangzhou area

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/2007/4/3/152060.html