(Minghui.org) Most of the male Falun Gong practitioners sentenced in Hebei Province are detained in Jidong Prison, also known as the Jidong Branch of the Hebei Provincial Prison Administration Bureau. Located in Tangshan City, it has nine branches and Falun Gong practitioners are currently imprisoned in the First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Branches.
Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, at least 36 practitioners were persecuted to death in Jidong Prison. Their average age was 60.
In 2023, the prison implemented a “standardized management,” by splitting the inmates into groups of three. The three people in each group must go everywhere together, including when they use the restroom.
The guards also increased the inmates’ work hours so the prison can make more revenue. This made all the inmates very tense. Some were forced to urinate or defecate in their pants due to the tight schedule. Some even attempted to commit suicide
While the inmates already endure this inhumane exploitation and abuse, Falun Gong practitioners face even more brutal torture for upholding their faith. Below are a few examples of the methods of torture used on practitioners.
When Falun Gong practitioners first enter the prison, all of their personal belongings are confiscated. They must wear the prison uniform and they are ordered to follow the prison rules.
Those who refuse to renounce their faith are denied visits with their families and they are not allowed to contact them. The guards also reduce their food amount by half and do not allow them to buy any food, despite the extremely heavy workload. Sometimes the guards even increased the workload for practitioners in prolonged starvation. Mr. Du Guofang from Shijiazhuang City was subjected to this form of torture.
Many were also restricted from buying anything, including toilet paper. Their families aren’t allowed to make deposits to their commissary accounts. Some elderly practitioners were arranged to sleep on the upper bunk bed, making it difficult for them to get up and down.
Depriving them of their basic rights and needs is used as a torture method against practitioners.
The guards physically try to force practitioners to renounce their faith. They beat them, make them stand for hours deprive them of sleep, shock them with electric batons, and spray them with pepper spray, among many other tactics.
When practitioners still refuse to renounce Falun Gong, the guards find excuses to send them to the strict management team. The inmates in the strict management team are instigated to torture practitioners. Mr. Lu Gang from Xingtai City was held in strict management team.
Mr. Wang Jian from Zunhua City was arrested on July 6, 2019, and sentenced to seven years in November 2020. His family received a call from the Jidong Second Prison at 11:58 a.m. on April 3, 2023, and were told he was in a coma. They were called at 12:14 p.m. and told an ambulance had picked him up. His family rushed to the hospital by 1:05 p.m., but he had already been pronounced dead.
A medical examiner reported that there were large areas of deep bruises around Mr. Wang’s ears and on his back, as well as some bruises on the back of his right hand. There was a circular mark on his chest and some scratches on his back. When the coroner turned his body over, fluid came out of his left ear.
Because Mr. Wang was still in good health when he had a physical exam on March 2, 2023, and he also appeared to be fine and in good spirits when his family visited him two weeks later, his family suspected foul play in his death as the bruises on his head and back suggested torture or other abuse.
Because his family suspected foul play, they refused to accept the prison’s offer of financial compensation. After 15 months of an uphill legal battle, the family buckled under the pressure and accepted the 150,000 yuan in compensation from the prison. As part of the agreement, Mr. Wang’s family had his body cremated at a funeral home near the prison on July 31, 2024.
Mr. Han Junde from Baoding City was persecuted to death on April 14, 2022, while serving an eight-year term in Jidong Fifth Prison. He died three years ago, but his body is still in the morgue—the prison authorities have repeatedly refused to provide his family with the information needed to uncover the true cause of his death.