2010-08-11 08:26

GUANGZHOU - The trial operation of an electronic monitoring network recently began at a prison in Guangdong province's Huizhou city in an effort to prevent inmates from attempting to commit suicide.

The surveillance network, which will gradually spread across the province, was built at a cost of 20 million yuan ($2.95 million), according to a report in the Nanfang Daily.

With the network, prison officers will be able to maintain a 24-hour watch on prison corridors, the entrance to the prison and the surrounding area.

The command center of the network has 29 sub-stations where dozens of personnel watch the cameras, alarms and access to the prison.

If an inmate dies unnaturally, the "information-powered management mode" will produce videos to facilitate the investigation and clarify the cause of death, said prison deputy warden Lai Guozhu,.

"The only way to convince people is with evidence and reasoning," Lai said.

There has been a significant drop in the number of disputes inside the prison since the surveillance network was put in operation, he said.

"On one hand, we have separated accomplices to prevent gangs. On the other, the 24-hour monitoring network discourages them from misbehaving" Lai said.

The surveillance network effectively prevents irregularities from taking place in the punishment and reward system for inmates, said Ouyang Weiguan, another deputy warden at the prison.

Conventionally, inmates tend to be punished or rewarded arbitrarily and the system lacks supervision, which results in corruption, such as prisoners paying officers to have their terms reduced.

In contrast, the software in the new network selects the criteria according to which a range of punishments and rewards are distributed. It also requires an electronic signature and the seal of a prison officer on duty. Once the information has been processed by the system, it cannot be changed.

The system is further able to automatically select and filter a list of well-behaved inmates, without human interference, which minimizes the possibility of mistakes.

The monitoring network is connected to the court system for commuting prison sentences and the parole of inmates, laying the foundation for an online connection between the court and prison, said Ma Canyang, an official of the Huizhou prison administration office.

"Whether the evaluation is fair or not remains to be seen," Ma said.

However, Yang Gaofeng, a law professor at Guangzhou University, takes issue with the 24-hour monitoring network, because it violates inmates' privacy. "They may feel the days in prison are long," he said.

An official of the general affairs office at Huizhou prison said the court has already taken away some of the inmates' personal rights before they enter the prison.

"The 24-hour monitoring is to prevent unusual conduct and the violation of prison rules. It also helps protect inmates by preventing bullying," he said.

Zheng Erqi and Zhong Weijian contributed to the story.