China: Secret “Black Jails” Hide Severe Rights Abuses

Nicholas Neighbors
11/13/2009
1:00pm

Since 2003, a large sum of Chinese citizens are being put in prisons in secret, unlawful detention facilities also known as black jails. They are placed there by state agents who violated the detainees rights by abducting people of the streets of Beijing and other Chinese cities, stripping them of their possessions, then imprisoning them. These jails are often located in hotels, nursing homes, and hospitals. They found that the people being arrested were mostly petitioners who are citizens from rural areas and seek to redress for abuses such as police torture and government corruption. The black jails are used as a way to ensure that the complainants are detained so that officials won't suffer from the large amount of petitioners from their areas. The Chinese government has denied the existence of black jails. Black jail guards subject the detainees to abuses such as violence, theft, extortion, threats, intimidation and deprivation of food, sleep and medical care. They are also subject to psychological abuse, including threats of sexual violence.

The denial of these black jails are troubling. It seems that there is major corruption in the Chinese government that is being overlooked or ignored. These black jails, and the people involved are suffering from many acts of violence and malnutrition. Because we have freedom of speech, we can get away with these acts of petitioning easily but in their country, it seems that even speaking out against the government could have you thrown in jail and require you to live in harsh conditions. The black jails should all be stopped and those responsible for them should be removed from power and tried for their crimes against human rights.

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/02/china-secret-black-jails-hide-severe-rights-abuses