Mobile phone in jail
Wang's successful prison break can also partially be attributed to the profiteers who traffic in various prohibited articles with the prisoners, including mobile phones, alcohol, cash, and even pets.
According to Wang Jianhua, 80% of the inmates have their own cell phones, since phone calls via the public phones at the prison are monitored.
Wang added that since 2007 prisoners have been able to get online on smart phones and chat with people outside the jail through instant messenger software like QQ.
The prison is located in a poor village where there are many stores selling handsets, mobile numbers, and related value-added services.
A local resident revealed that if not for the large demand from the prisoners, the stores would hardly be able to survive.
Wang Jiahua explained that any person who has free access to the prison could be a profiteer, even including the prison police on shift.
Though the prison has jammed mobile signals since the beginning of this year, said Wang Jianhua, there were still "grey zones." And when police searched for the phones, the prisoners would hide or bury their handsets somewhere.
Han Ming also admitted that it was hard to stop the cell phones.
Wang's prison break was probably caused, according to Guo Qiuman, a prison police officer, by a phone call to his wife, which was picked up by a strange man.
Inside contracting system
Such a chaotic prison is deeply rooted in the inside contracting system that had been in place since 2003. Inside contracting is the practice of hiring contractors who work inside the prison, like the police, to take charge of a group of inmates.
The contractors are responsible for their own gains and losses. Except for annual fees to the prison, all the extra profits can be counted as personal incomes.
Sun Baoming, director of the education department at the prison, pointed out that with the inside contracting, the prison is paying more attention to increasing economic gains instead of educating the prisoners.
Wang Jianhua was transferred to Shenzhou from Beijing. Comparatively speaking, he said at the previous prison, they only needed to work for eight hours and could watch news every day; while in Shenzhou they had to work from 5 or 6 am to 10 pm.
"Since the contracting system was put into practice, we hadn't received any ideological education at all," Wang Jianhua said.
Zhang Zidong, former vice head of the prison in 2003, had objected to the inside contracting since the very beginning. He said that the system would cause more chaos by trying to reform the prisoners merely through labor.
Wang Ping, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, commented that the contracting derived from the old system that combined prison function and enterprise management.
Though reform of the contracting system had already started as early as 2008, the Shenzhou prison has remained the way it is up to now.
Huo Xinfa, former head of the prison, had been planning a substantial reform since 2010, but was unfortunately relieved of his post due to Wang Zhenqing's prison break.
Han Ming said he has not been informed of any further reform in the system yet, but they already reinforced the equipment and facilities and beefed up the patrolling at the prison.
