Yancheng prisoners play a game. Photo: Changanjwj

 

A view of Yancheng prison from outside its walls. Photo: CFP

Articles about a former national football team player's life  has put Yancheng prison in the spotlight after he claimed that the prison cancelled all prisoners' outdoor activities upon the arrival of Bogu Kailai, wife of the Communist Party of China's disgraced senior official Bo Xilai.

"Some prisoners used to play football and asked Jiang Jin for some guidance. But after Bogu was transferred to the prison, activities on the playground were cancelled," read a People magazine article published on April 26.

Jiang, who was detained for his involvement in fixing a league game in 2010 and sentenced to five and a half years in prison in June 2012, was incarcerated in Yancheng before being released in December 2015.

An anonymous Yancheng official denied the news, saying that the playground, as an important part of prisoners' daily life, has never been unavailable on account of a particular prisoner but was only closed from October 2013 to June 2014 for renovations, the Legal Daily reported.

The denials have not reduced public curiosity and as one of the two "central level" prisons in China, the prison remains high-profile but mysterious.

Officials behind bars

Yancheng prison was built in October 2002 in Yanjiao, North China's Hebei Province, to the east of Beijing. It is the only prison under the administration of the Ministry of Justice. The other central-level prison is Qincheng prison, which is under the administration of the Ministry of Public Security and known for its high security.

Prisoners in Yancheng fall into three types - former government officials, foreigners and criminals that are worthy of research. All of them are transferred here from other prisons, according to "Changanjwj," a WeChat account that focuses on legal and political affairs.

Officials at the departmental level are put behind bars in Yancheng and those of higher rank are sent to Qincheng, an anonymous Yancheng official was quoted as saying by thepaper.cn in a report in July 2014.

Formers officials from the Chinese Football Association, including vice chairmen Yang Yimin and Nan Yong are also in Yancheng.

That Bogu had been sent to Yancheng was revealed when it was announced that her death sentence had been commuted in December 2015. She was handed a suspended death sentence in 2012 for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood.

According to the Shenzhen-based newspaper, Daily Sunshine, foreign prisoners are housed in a separate section in Yancheng. The guards can communicate with them in English and professors from Beijing International Studies University are be called to the prison to help those who cannot speak English or Chinese.

Keeping busy

"During his days in Yancheng prison, Jiang seemed to live the life in his boyhood in the Bayi Football Team (in 1987) - he had to lean on one side and curl up his legs when sleeping on the wooden bed - and lie diagonally on the bed if he wanted to straighten his legs," read the People magazine's story.

According to "Changanjwj," the cells look like college dormitories with eight people in a room. The bunks are 1.92 meters long, while Jiang is 1.98 meters tall.

The cell was equipped with a television and an electric monitor and every prisoner has two lockers in the room, Daily Sunshine reported.

The daily routine for prisoners in Yancheng includes morning exercise, followed by a few hours of work, a noon break, studying in the afternoon and watching CCTV News at 7 pm. They can play basketball or chess from 4 pm till dinner.

Planting and taking care of vegetables and fruits in the prison garden is one of the major jobs that inmates do, which aims to teach them how to care for something other than themselves, according to Changanjwj.

Prisoners can also make clothes and some former government officials who have mastered another language do translation work, according to "Upolitics," a WeChat public account.

The canteen also looks like those in universities and has a section for ethnic minorities. There are two dishes and a soup for lunch and dinner and the weekly recipes are put on the wall in the canteen, according to Upolitics.

Model jail

Aside from the rehabilitation of prisoners, the Ministry of Justice asks Yancheng prison to act as a model of prison management and a window for international judicial exchanges, according to thepaper.cn.

Yancheng also arranges "scared straight" sessions for governmental departments, to help in the fight against corruption.

According to a release on the official website of Ministry of Science and Technology, some Party members and employees from one of its affiliated institutions visited Yancheng in May 2014 and listened to Liu Xiquan, a former deputy head of Beijing's Chaoyang district who was arrested for taking bribes in 2011.


Newspaper headline: Prison in the public eye