“We’ll Beat You to Death With Impunity”: Secret

Detention & Abuse of Women in China’s “Black

Jails”

A report by

Inside “Black Jails”

• Detention facilities used to hold individuals without any due legal process, often operated by government officials or hired guards.

“They warned me that if I told the truth about what happened in the black jails after I got out, they’ll cause trouble for my child.” - Chen Chunhong of Jiangsu Province, detainee

“Some were pulled into bathrooms, stripped naked, and doused with cold

water, and thugs brazenly kicked female petitioners in the stomach.”

- Zhang Wanzhen, of Zhejiang Province, detainee

• Typically guarded by males, women are more likely than men to encounter physical, sexual, and verbal abuses and threats in black jails.

Who Is Affected?

80% of black jail detainees are women.

in cases of deprivation of liberty or detainee mistreatment since January 2012 involves a black jail, according to data compiled by CHRD.

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Black jails often detainee the most vulnerable women in Chinese society: elderly women, women in fragile health, impoverished rural migrant women, women who lost land or were victimized by forced eviction, women with disabilities, and mothers with their infant or other young children.

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Beatings & Torture

Wang Delan (王德兰 ) died in a black jail in Hubei Province in August 2013, reportedly from a beating by guards. Authorities, who claimed that Wang committed suicide, cremated the body over her family’s objection.

Chen Chunhong (陈春红 ) was tortured in a black jail in Jiangsu Province in August 2013. Guards made her do the “airplane,” tying her hands behind her back and lifting them high into the air. At one point, a local official slapped Chen, causing her to bleed from her mouth.

Sexual Assaults

A male guard raped Henan petitioner Li Ruirui (李蕊蕊 ) in a black jail in Beijing in August 2009. He later received an 8-year sentence—a rare case of black jail abuse that was prosecuted.

In February 2013, interceptors from Henan Province attacked Song Qiaozhi (宋巧枝 ) in a restroom at the Majialou “relief services center” in Beijing. One man stripped away all her clothes, and Song had to use only a blanket to cover herself.

Black jails can be temporary holding cells set up in buildings and out of public view, as well as facilities the government has “formalized” to project an appearance of legitimacy, with some supposedly providing “education” or “services” for petitioners.

Types of “Black Jails”

In November 2013, activists uncovered a black jail inside the Jiruigong Hotel in Beijing, set up by officials from Jilin Province.

A facility designated for “legal education” in Qianjiang City, Hubei Province.

Deprivation of Basic Necessities

Zhang Dinghua (张定花 ), a petitioner from Lianyungang City in Jiangsu (on right), was held in black jails three times between March 2012 and January 2013. Zhang was not fed nor given a blanket despite cold temperatures. She was also deprived of sleep, and when guards noticed that she had dozed off, they poured hot sauce on Zhang’s eyes to wake her up.

Petitioner Feng Lanmei (冯兰美 ) was given very little to eat or drink, and she was not allowed to bathe or provided a change of underpants during a detention in March and April 2013. For a stretch of five days, she only had very thin clothes to wear and slept on a bed frame without a mattress or blanket.

Deprivation of Medical Treatment

Liu Yinzhi (刘银芝 ), a petitioner from Hubei Province, was refused medication when she suffered from diarrhea and other illnesses while locked up in a black jail in Wuhan City for 20 days in September 2012.

Zhao Chunqin (赵春琴 ), from Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, was held in a black jail without access to proper medical treatment in March 2013 after a violent violent abduction. Over several days, her condition—a head wound, abdominal pain, and bloody urine—worsened.

Impunity for Officials, Light Punishments for Abusers

Black jail victims in Wuhan City, Hubei Province look to file a collective lawsuit.

Most of the few reported convictions for black jail abuses have led to light sentences. The lack of independence of Chinese law-enforcement and judicial bodies leaves women even more susceptible to violations.

In October 2013, Hubei petitioner Zhou Dazhen, who was deprived of food, water, and medicine, went to dangerous extremes to free herself, setting ablaze the bed and blankets in the room where she was being held. She was only after signing a guarantee promising not to petition further.

Desperate for Freedom, Deprived of Justice

Two female victims of black jails holding a banner saying “Protest the Detention of Petitioners in Black Jails.” With so little possibility for redress once they are freed, individuals held in the unlawful facilities often take to the streets to protest their use and the lack of true channels for justice.

Where Are Black Jails?Locations of black jails for cases in CHRD’s report. Such facilities exist in every province and municipality in China.

BEIJING MUNICIPALITY

“Relief services centers” are sites of countless abuses against women.

JIANGSU PROVINCE

Lawyer and activists documented 96 locations in Wuxi City used as black jails as early as 2013.

HUNAN PROVINCE

Two women died as a result of abuses in black jails, in 2011 and 2013.

TIANJIN MUNICIPALITY

HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE

JIANGXI PROVINCE

HUBEI PROVINCE

HENAN PROVINCESHANDONG PROVINCE

SHAANXI PROVINCE

HEBEI PROVINCE

Woman and daughter held in blacks jails for nearly 6 straight years, since November 2008.

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Read the full report on CHRD’s website