(Clearwisdom.net) Since the beginning of 2007, officials at the Jilin Prison have continued the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and employed more underhanded methods to do so.

New prison housing was built in 2006. After it was put into use in 2007, the authorities consolidated the camp's administration. They put everyone who did not participate in forced labor, including sick inmates and Falun Gong practitioners, into a large room on each floor during the daytime. The rooms were so cold in the winter that water would freeze in there. They locked the doors and assigned several thugs to stand guard, with designated restroom times. Everyone was given a small plastic stool. Sometimes all were ordered to sit in rows for six or seven hours continuously. They used this type of punishment to scare these people into forced labor. Currently, there are about 70 practitioners under persecution in Jilin Prison. Most of them refused to participate in what the authorities called "labor re-education", so the guards subjected them to various forms of persecution. They also assigned one or two prisoners to watch the practitioners' actions, take notes and report weekly to the Education Section, which specializes in persecuting practitioners.

Guard Wang Yuanchun often inspected and threatened those on watch, telling them that they must be on alert so that practitioners don't study the Fa or practice the exercises. The prisoners on watch would be punished if they failed to do so. When they reported things to the Education Section, they were rewarded. Both threats and enticement were used. Guards also often suddenly searched practitioners' bodies and clothes. Once an article was found, the practitioner would be subjected to strict monitoring and/or imprisonment in a small cell for torture. There is bonus pay for guards who cause a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong.

Guards Wang Yuanchun and Li Yongsheng tried their best to persecute practitioners, attempting to gain promotions and get rich with such tactics. The practitioners who were recently sentenced were forbidden to contact other practitioners. They tormented these practitioners with beatings and verbal abuse.

Jilin Prison officials often duped outside organizations and the media. Certain government agencies, institutions and commercial companies, even primary school students, came here to visit. The prison guards hid the persecution, forbidding practitioners contact with visitors. Especially when groups inspecting human rights conditions arrived, the prison authorities moved practitioners to the workshop restrooms and assigned many guards to watch them. They were afraid that the practitioners would report the real conditions.

The strictly controlled small cell is where they abuse practitioners the most severely. The guards use violent methods themselves or incite prisoners to physically abuse practitioners. Practitioner Zhang Xiushan in the No. 5 Ward was put under strict monitoring by Wang Yuanchun for over a month after Master's articles were discovered on his person. Guard Wang declared that he intended to further imprison Mr. Zhang for two more months to "reform" him. The strictly controlled cell is the second room on the east side of the second floor in the south residential building. The small cell is above the library.

Prison head Jian thought that the centralized management was still not enough and stated that they would start what he called "zero management". They are rounding up those who refuse to perform forced labor and taking them to the workshop. Physical and mental abuse go from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Guard Wang Yuanchun, about 30 years old, lives in a building close to Northeast Dianli University. Almost every week he leads some prisoners to body-search practitioners in each section and checks to see if practitioners are talking to each other. He also uses the promise of term reductions to encourage criminal inmates to commit crimes against practitioners. If they found something during the searches, they would escalate the persecution of the practitioners--either in the strictly controlled section, small cell, or the dark room that they set aside just for torture in the number 10 Ward.