Prison Brief for China
Print version| Country | CHINA | ||||||||||||
| Ministry responsible | Ministry of Justice (sentenced prisoners), Ministry of Public Security (pre-trial detainees and persons in administrative detention) | ||||||||||||
| Prison administration | Prison Administration Bureau (MoJ) | ||||||||||||
| Contact address | No.10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie, Beijing 100020, China (MoJ) | ||||||||||||
| Telephone/fax/website | tel: +86 10 6520 6258 or 6213 (MoJ) fax: +86 10 6520 5866 or 5239 (MoJ) Web: interdiv.moj@263.net.cn |
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| Head of prison administration
(and title) |
Shao Lui (MoJ)
Director-General |
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| Prison population total
(including pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners) |
1,565,771
at 31.12.2005 (national prison administration - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only, excluding pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention.) There are two types of administrative detention: according to Chinese government statistics there were more than 500,000 serving administrative detention in re-education-through-labour camps in 2005, and in 2004 there were 350,000 in a second type of administrative detention, which is for drug offenders and prostitutes (U.S. State Department Human Rights Report 2006). The number of pre-trial detainees is not known but has been estimated at about 100,000. If this is correct the total prison population in China would be about 2,500,000. |
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| Prison population rate
(per 100,000 of national population) |
119
based on an estimated national population of 1,319.7 million at end of 2005 (from United Nations figures) - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only. (A total prison population of 2,500,000 would raise the prison population rate to 189 per 100,000 of the national population.) |
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| Pre-trial detainees / remand prisoners
(percentage of prison population) |
*
(the number of prisoners in pre-trial / remand imprisonment has been estimated by an East Asian criminal justice expert at 100,000) |
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| Female prisoners
(percentage of prison population) |
4.9%
(of sentenced prisoners in MoJ prisons, 31.12.2005) |
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| Juveniles / minors / young prisoners
incl. definition (percentage of prison population) |
1.4%
(of sentenced prisoners in MoJ prisons, 31.12.2005) |
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| Foreign prisoners
(percentage of prison population) |
0.2%
(of sentenced prisoners in MoJ prisons, 2004) |
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| Number of establishments /
institutions |
*
(The Ministry of Justice holds sentenced prisoners in more than 700 prisons. In addition, the U.S. State Department Human Rights Report for 2005 states that there are some 30 jails for juveniles. The Supreme People's Procuratorate reports that there are also 340 re-education-through-labour camps. The number of pre-trial detention institutions and of special administrative detention facilities for drug offenders and prostitutes is not known.) |
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| Official capacity of prison system | *
(The total capacity of the system is not known but the Supreme People's Procuratorate reports that the official capacity of the re-education-through-labour camps is about 300,000.) |
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| Occupancy level (based on official
capacity) |
*
(The occupancy rate in the re-education-through-labour camps in 2003 was about 87%.) |
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| Recent prison population trend
(year, prison population total, prison population rate) |
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Please send new or updated information to icps@kcl.ac.uk