Blackmailing incident brings prison's sordid history to light

Prisoner Wang Dong Photo: thepaper.cn

Prison is supposed to reform the inhabitants. But one institution in Heilongjiang Province seems to have turned into a school for criminals. A recent case that an inmate blackmailed several women via the instant message application WeChat has shocked many, and thrown a light on the chaotic underbelly of Nehe Prison.

The prisoner, 27-year-old Wang Dong, was sentenced to six years in Nehe Prison in December 2012 for kidnapping. The case has caused public outcry about lax supervision and corruption in China's prisons.

Digital Lothario

Beginning from early 2013, Wang started using WeChat to strike up romantic relationships with at least seven women. He managed to defraud at least three of them, cheating one out of more than 80,000 yuan ($12,780), according to the Beijing Evening News.

According to the local prosecuting authorities, Wang, after winning the victims' trust, managed to obtain nude photos and videos from two of the three women. He then succeeded in blackmailing them out of more than 110,000 yuan. Wang forced the victims to visit him in prison and bring him valuable items. One of the women, surnamed He, claimed that Wang had forced her to have sexual intercourse with her in the prison hall, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Wang's crimes were eventually reported in November 2014 by one victim's husband, a police officer. After the case was cracked, the Heilongjiang provincial justice department subsequently released a statement on January 28 saying that 14 officials were punished for violations such as abuse of power and neglect of duties. Among them, the head of Nehe Prison was removed from his post.

The statement disclosed that Wang came into possession of five mobile phones, which are banned in prisons in China. Two of the phones were obtained from previous prisoners. The other three were brought in by one of the victims.

Wang denied the sex accusations, while the prison guards said they did not see it happen. Investigators were unable to restore data from the surveillance footage because the alleged activity occurred too long ago.

A sordid quid pro quo

Wang's case also brought to light the sordid recent past of the prison that held him. Nehe Prison, which holds primarily prisoners serving less than 15 years, has seen at least six suicides in the past six years, including five prisoners and one prison guard, with another three failed suicide attempts, according to thepaper.cn.

Prison guards' abuse of power in Nehe Prison dates back to the 1990s. Thepaper.cn reported that a prisoner surnamed Li was beaten to death by two prison guards in 1991 after he expressed discontent with the guards. Another prisoner surnamed Rong was beaten brutally by a guard in 1995, losing sight in one of his eys. The case came to light after Rong filed a lawsuit and sought compensation.

The case also revealed that prisoners in Nehe Prison have been bribing the prison guards for years. In return, prisoners could get or do whatever they want.

In Wang's case, despite there being strict regulations on prisoners arranging to meet with people from outside, Wang managed to arrange several meetings with two separate victims. He would order the victims to give the prison guards 500 to 1,000 yuan as bribery for a "relatives meeting pass." In one of the meetings with Li, Wang had successfully obtained a mobile phone and had brought it into the cell because the guards did not check seriously.

Wang obtained two more phones from Li after he ordered her to give the phones to a retailer near the prison. The phones were then picked up by a police officer and passed to a prison guard and to Wang in August 2013, Xinhua reported.

A former prison guard who worked in Nehe Prison for over 20 years told thepaper.cn that he had helped a prisoner bring in a mobile phone into the prison.

Prisoners could also obtain alcohol in Nehe Prison, with Wang admitting he did so. "The guards would pour alcohol into a mineral water bottle, conceal it under their clothing and smuggle it into the prison when they go to work," a prison officer from Nehe Prison who demanded anonymous said.

A bottle of alcohol that normally cost only 20 yuan outside could be sold for 100 yuan inside the prison, thepaper.cn reported.

Wang had also told one of the victims that he once owed 110,000 yuan because of gambling in the prison. "Winning or losing thousands of yuan is seen as normal here," the prison officer said, adding that two prisoners had committed suicide because they could not pay back the gambling debts.

Some prisoners with better relationship with the prison guards were also allowed to cook inside their cells. Prisoners who have mobile phones would call a convenience store near the prison to order the raw materials, and prison guards would smuggle it in to the prisoners, he explained.

Turning things around

These are just a few of the scandals at Nehe Prison. One guard at Nehe told Phoenix New Media that the prison's offenses might be just the tip of the iceberg, implying that Nehe Prison may not be the only prison with internal management problems.

More prison scandals came to light afterwards. Eight prisoners in a prison in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, died between 2008 to 2014, with the prison refusing to release the full surveillance video footage of the incidents, reported the Lanzhou Morning Post.

As a result, on January 29, the Ministry of Justice demanded that all prisons in China tighten their management practices. All visitors' identities and their belongings must be checked before meeting with prisoners, and all meetings must be videotaped, the Xinhua Daily Telegraph reported.

Prisons are also required to install smartphone signal shielding systems. Prisoners in possession of prohibited items will be unable to apply for commutation or release on parole for three years, according to the report.