Asia | China’s prisons

Some better, most still awful

China is cleaning up its prisons, but there is a long way to go

Jun 21st 2001|tianjin

FROM the outside, it resembles nothing so much as a corporate campus: a neatly groomed courtyard, potted plants lining the walkways, and fresh green lawns that nicely offset the simple red-brick buildings. The perimeter fence, however, is electrified. Inside, placards offer advice such as “Confess your crime and accept reform.” Welcome to Tianjin Municipal Prison, a newly built and, by all outward appearances, exemplary jail for convicted murders, rapists and swindlers, as well as a few members of the Falun Gong meditation-cum-exercise sect.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Some better, most still awful”