(Minghui.org) Since the establishment of Liaoning Province Second Women’s Prison on August 31, 2019, the prison has been actively persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Many practitioners were forced to work without pay, deprived of family visitation, and tortured for not renouncing their faith.

Detailed below are some accounts of the persecution in the prison.

Forced Labor

The prison has a very big factory to make down jackets. It is estimated that up to 3,000 inmates have worked there at any one time. Guards are on duty to closely monitor the production. As the down jackets will be exported overseas, high quality is required. The inmates are forced to work nonstop from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, except for a short morning workout. Even so, the guards still increase the workload constantly.

In order to achieve the quota, the inmates are not allowed to go to the restroom alone and must go in groups of three. Their meal time is limited to five minutes. If an inmate wishes to request a leave of absence, she must kneel in front of the guards. The guard would only approve it if they had met the production target. If they miss the target, they may even be denied using the restroom.

One down jacket has to undergo about 60 to 100 steps in the production pipeline. This causes inmates to rush each other and get into fights when any steps are delayed. Local government officials often visit the prison. During the visits, all inmates must keep working and cannot lift their heads. They are allowed to rest on Sunday and do the laundry for 30 minutes, but have to continue studying and write "thought reports."

If an inmates cannot meet their production target, the guards will call out their names. Those who are named are subjected to punishment, including verbal abuse, being forced to either stand or squat, and are not given food or allowed to buy any food. Others in the same cell will also be implicated and punished.

Most of the younger inmates work slowly as they don’t have the proper skills to make clothes. They often have to rework the jackets. Some cried every day after being verbally abused and punished for not meeting their production target; some fainted from exhaustion; some inmates’ fingers were pierced by needles; and some had their fingers amputated after being injured. Two inmates tried to commit suicide by swallowing needles, but failed, and were punished. They were also forced to write reflection reports.

What’s described above is only the abuse that regular inmates are facing. Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to even more severe torture for their faith.

Guards Instigate Inmates to Persecute Practitioners

For regular inmates, upon their prison admission, they first stay in the entry team for “onboarding education.” They are also required to stay in the release team for a period of time before their release. However, for Falun Gong practitioners, they are not allowed to stay in either team in order to prevent them from interacting with the inmates.

When a practitioner is admitted to prison, a guard will talk to her and evaluate how firm they are in practicing Falun Gong. They then assign the practitioner to a division, which would be tasked to provide a plan to "transform" the practitioner.

Generally, inmates’ name tags are either white, yellow, or red. White stands for “general supervision,” while yellow denotes “relaxed regulation,” and red means "strict management." However, regardless of whether Falun Gong practitioners have been "transformed" or not, their name tags are red, which denotes “strict management.”

The guards usually avoid beating the practitioners themselves. Instead, they used sentence reduction as an incentive to instigate the inmates to "transform" the practitioners. The inmate could receive a nine-month reduction each time they force a practitioner to renounce her belief. Some have actively participated in the persecution as a result.

Two inmates are usually assigned to work on one practitioner and practitioners aren’t allowed to stay in the same cell together. Those who refuse to "transform" are beaten, starved, verbally abused, forced to stand facing the wall, or squat for long hours, and are deprived of sleep. Even after a practitioner is forced to renounce Falun Gong, the inmates will continue to monitor her and not allow her to talk to other practitioners.

There are two main torture methods used on practitioners. One is dousing them with cold water. In the wintertime, practitioners are taken to a storage room and stripped down to their underwear. Chilly wind blows in from the open windows, while the practitioners are forced to stand in a basin and are doused with cold water continuously from head to toe.

Torture illustration: Doused with cold water.

Another method is solitary confinement. There are many small rooms in an isolated building, with no sunlight or artificial light in the room. Practitioners held in solitary confinement are not allowed to wash up, and are given very little food. There is no bed in the room, and the floor only has a few torn quilt covers. There is a very shallow basin for toilet, with no flushing system. The basin is cleaned once a day, creating a very bad smell in the room. The room has neither a fan nor a heater. If practitioners do the Falun Gong exercises, the guards, who are monitoring them via a CCTV camera, start shouting at them. Though a practitioner is locked in the room, inmates are assigned to continue monitoring them from the hallway.

The prison regulation states that the period for solitary confinement is 7 to 15 days, but in Liaoning Province Second Women’s Prison, the guards hold practitioners for however long they want, from a few months to a few years. An inmate who was once locked in the room for “attacking” a guard became emaciated and was in a poor mental state after being released.

Practitioner Ms. Li Jing was forced to renounce Falun Gong. She later regretted it and announced that she would pick up the practice again. In retaliation, the guards poured cold water over her in the winter and instigated the inmates in her cell to beat her every day. She was forced to stand facing the wall, was deprived of sleep, and forced to squat while wearing thin clothes and facing an open window in the winter. Once, while brushing her teeth, inmate Luo Shuyuan poured a basin of water over her and placed the basin on her head. She is still serving her term in the prison.

Ms. Wang Qingrong, 73, was sentenced to five years. As she refused to be "transformed," she was often beaten and made to clean the cell. Afterward, she was forced to squat and was not allowed to sleep. She was doused with cold water during winter. All of her winter clothes were confiscated, and she had only thin clothes left. Her food and daily necessities were also snatched away by others. Ms. Wang did not have any toilet paper and had to wash herself using a bottle of water. Once, when she was in the prison factory, an inmate kicked her and her head struck a machine. She fainted. Due to the long-term persecution, Ms. Wang was unable to straighten her lower back. She was sent to solitary confinement in October 2024 and was only released in March 2025 when her term was up.

Ms. Wu Jiufen, in her 60s and from Huludao City, was sentenced to one year. She was sent to the 4th Team of the 4th Division. This team treated practitioners very cruelly. Upon her prison admission, she was beaten very badly. Her face was swollen and bruised, one eyeball was bulging, and the entire white of the eye turned black. Her body was bruised. The inmates also pinched her nipples and private parts, causing her to have difficulties walking and using the restroom. Despite her condition, Ms. Wu was still forced to stand by the guard desk in the factory.

Another practitioner was once beaten by the captain for holding Ms. Wu’s hand. On another occasion, Ms. Wu was beaten so badly that she could barely walk. She appeared to be numb when other practitioners greeted her. She has been released.

Ms. Li Yujie, in her 60s and from Shenyang City, was sentenced to 1.5 years. She was held in the 4th Division. As she refused to "transform," she was beaten, punished, humiliated, deprived of sleep, and doused with cold water in the winter. She was released in September 2024.

Ms. Liu Yubo, 65, from Huludao City, was sentenced to two years and three months. She was held in the 4th Division. When she first entered the division, she was beaten so severely that her lower back and legs were badly injured. Because she walked very slowly, inmate Feng Linlin pushed her down and dragged her across the ground by her hair. When a practitioner questioned Feng for this behavior, Feng said that Ms. Liu was pretending to be sick. The captain then scolded the practitioner for "challenging" Feng. Ms. Liu is still serving time in prison.

Ms. Wei Yuchi, in her 40s, was sentenced to five years. As she was often called out by the guards for not meeting her production target, she was forced to squat until 11 p.m. and not given any food. She has been released.

A practitioner from Haicheng City, who has been released, was once doused with cold water in the storage room.

An elderly practitioner recalled that the inmates poured water onto her bedding, causing her to be unable to sleep. She also became emaciated as she wasn’t given enough food. Once, an inmate punched her in the chest.

If practitioners refused to "transform," the inmates even wrote the Falun Gong’s founder's name on the practitioners’ underwear and forced them to wear it.

If practitioners want to see their family during visitation, they must submit an application and write in the application that they are criminals. If they refuse to follow the rule, they are denied visits with their families.

Perpetrator Involved in the Persecution

Inmate Liu Lijia violently hit Ms. Wu Jiufen. Inmate Luo Shuyuan often cursed and scolded Ms. Li Jing and instigated other inmates in the same cell to hit Ms. Li.

Inmate Feng Linlin and Sun Shanshan violently beat up Ms. Wang Qingrong.

Inmate Sun Baoyan was appointed by a guard to slander Falun Gong’s founder and humiliate Falun Gong practitioners. As she and inmate Cui Xiaoqiang were actively involved in the persecution, the guards arranged for all newly-admitted practitioners to stay in the same cell with them. Cui’s 12-year term was reduced by two years as a reward.

There have been some kindhearted guards and inmates who tried to protect Falun Gong practitioners. Some told practitioners, “I know you are a good person.” Some inmates stopped persecuting practitioners after learning more about Falun Gong. Some inmates asked for Falun Gong books from practitioners who will soon be released and said that they will practice Falun Gong after they are released.