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Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Inspectors patrol jails to ensure rights
Source: Xinhua |
February 10, 2009, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FROM March to September last year, 48-year-old Li Guizhi paid five unannounced visits to the jail in Liaoyuan City, northwestern Jilin Province, asking detainees whether they had been tortured.
She also asked: "Do you know you have the right to a lawyer?", "Do you have enough to eat every day?", "Are you taken to see a doctor when you are not well?".
Li is a community director of Nankang Street, Longshan District in Liaoyuan, and in her spare time she is an unpaid public inspector of jails, prisons and other detention centers.
That means she can randomly select which jails to visit and when, making unannounced visits and choosing detainees at random for interviews.
She is also entitled to inspect the jails' cells, its living, food preparation, dining and other facilities. She can examine jails' records to ensure that custody procedures are legal and detainees are not treated inhumanely.
"Such volunteer work, without any payment, should send a message to the world that China's efforts against torture are in line with international practice," said Li who said she was deeply honored to serve.
As the first pilot city for China's new detention inspection system, Liaoyuan has 20 public inspectors like Li. They are doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, civil servants and community workers - they also serve as local legislators, political advisers or "people's supervisors" within the legal system.
They were chosen for their legislative experience and community service. Inspectors, who received legal training, make proposals for improvements at each visited jail. The institutions are obliged to make improvements accordingly.
This year, the pilot program has been expanded to Jinzhong in northern Shanxi Province and Zhang Jiagang in eastern Jiangsu Province. Further expansion is planned.
The program is organized by the Research Center of the Litigation System and Judicial Reform under the Beijing-based Renmin University of China.
Sponsored by the European Union, the program is part of a package of cooperation agreements in political, legal, cultural and economic fields. Legal cooperation between China and Europe covers areas such as the death penalty, anti-torture education and training, and professional training of judges and prosecutors.
The head of the program is professor Chen Weidong of Renmin University. He told Xinhua that the treatment of detainees, to some extent, reflects the level of protection of the public's rights and interests.
"The introduction of public supervision, which is more independent, to oversee the exercise of power by detention houses, helps ensure that prisoners are treated in accordance with the law," he said.
According to Chinese law, law makers and political advisers are entitled to monitor jails and prisons, reflecting the National People's Congress' and political advisory bodies' supervision over administrative organs.
Over the past few years, Chinese prosecutors set up the "people's supervisor" system to prevent injustice in the execution of the laws.
"Public supervision enables the public to get a close and independent observation of detention centers. Reports are more convincing and help improve China's image in protecting human rights," he said.
She also asked: "Do you know you have the right to a lawyer?", "Do you have enough to eat every day?", "Are you taken to see a doctor when you are not well?".
Li is a community director of Nankang Street, Longshan District in Liaoyuan, and in her spare time she is an unpaid public inspector of jails, prisons and other detention centers.
That means she can randomly select which jails to visit and when, making unannounced visits and choosing detainees at random for interviews.
She is also entitled to inspect the jails' cells, its living, food preparation, dining and other facilities. She can examine jails' records to ensure that custody procedures are legal and detainees are not treated inhumanely.
"Such volunteer work, without any payment, should send a message to the world that China's efforts against torture are in line with international practice," said Li who said she was deeply honored to serve.
As the first pilot city for China's new detention inspection system, Liaoyuan has 20 public inspectors like Li. They are doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, civil servants and community workers - they also serve as local legislators, political advisers or "people's supervisors" within the legal system.
They were chosen for their legislative experience and community service. Inspectors, who received legal training, make proposals for improvements at each visited jail. The institutions are obliged to make improvements accordingly.
This year, the pilot program has been expanded to Jinzhong in northern Shanxi Province and Zhang Jiagang in eastern Jiangsu Province. Further expansion is planned.
The program is organized by the Research Center of the Litigation System and Judicial Reform under the Beijing-based Renmin University of China.
Sponsored by the European Union, the program is part of a package of cooperation agreements in political, legal, cultural and economic fields. Legal cooperation between China and Europe covers areas such as the death penalty, anti-torture education and training, and professional training of judges and prosecutors.
The head of the program is professor Chen Weidong of Renmin University. He told Xinhua that the treatment of detainees, to some extent, reflects the level of protection of the public's rights and interests.
"The introduction of public supervision, which is more independent, to oversee the exercise of power by detention houses, helps ensure that prisoners are treated in accordance with the law," he said.
According to Chinese law, law makers and political advisers are entitled to monitor jails and prisons, reflecting the National People's Congress' and political advisory bodies' supervision over administrative organs.
Over the past few years, Chinese prosecutors set up the "people's supervisor" system to prevent injustice in the execution of the laws.
"Public supervision enables the public to get a close and independent observation of detention centers. Reports are more convincing and help improve China's image in protecting human rights," he said.
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