(Minghui.org) Gongzhuling Prison in Jilin Province has nine divisions, with the Ninth Division being used specifically to detain Falun Gong practitioners. This division also serves as the centralized location for “admission training.” Practitioners detained here have to undergo “admission training” with any newcomers, and are then kept there in the Ninth Division for ongoing brainwashing until their term is completed.
The Ninth Division structure is divided into internal and external divisions. The external area includes an assembly hall and the guards’ general office, which has no CCTV, but is a storage area for electric batons and pepper spray. The internal area, which has CCTVs, has three brainwashing classrooms, seven cells, three admission training rooms, and an assembly hall near the entrance. The sections are separated by a metal fence and an electric gate. Usually, about 80 Falun Gong practitioners are detained in this division, with many of them over 50 years old with sentences ranging between four and nine years. Several are sentenced to more than 10 years. The division claims to have a “100% “transformation” rate.”
Early Stage of Imprisonment
Practitioners who refuse to sign the guarantee statements renouncing their faith are repeatedly interrogated by the captain of the Ninth Division. The purpose of the “questioning” is to understand the practitioner’s personality, psychological resilience, and their level of understanding of Falun Gong in order to customize a “transformation” method. The head of the Prison Administration Section also takes these practitioners to external police stations for questioning. Regardless of whether a practitioner has pleaded guilty or not in court, they are pressured to sign the guarantee statements.
At the same time, the instructors and inmates assigned to monitor the practitioners constantly threaten them with consequences for not signing the statements. The instructors, former practitioners who have “transformed,” provide timely reports to the guards. Inmates typically transfer in from other divisions and voluntarily participate in the persecution to avoid doing forced labor. They not only monitor the practitioners but are allowed to physically abuse anyone who refuses to sign the statements. To gain favor with the guards, some inmates take the initiative to humiliate and attack practitioners.
Systematic Reprisals for Refusing to Sign Guarantee Statements
Practitioners who still refuse to sign the guarantee statements after repeated interrogation are punished during the daily admission training.
Reprisals include:
- Being forced to sit upright on a stool without moving, with a heavy book held between the legs. The stool's protruding edges often causes the skin to become red and swollen and bleeds. Practitioners in good physical condition are forced to hold heavier books and are threatened with electric batons if the book falls.
- Starvation: Allowed only one steamed bun about the size of an egg, per day.
- Deprivation of drinking water and personal hygiene: Mugs were confiscated and practitioners were forbidden to drink or wash.
- Forced overtime: Required to work three shifts every night with each shift lasting two hours.
- Cold torture: Forced to sit near an open window with no warm clothing in winter.
While being subjected to such abuse, practitioners must remain silent and motionless while being humiliated by the inmates in charge. The inmates also report to the guards and the guards may intensify the torture by slapping the practitioners in public or pepper-spraying them in the face.
Any practitioner who still refuses to sign the guarantee statement after three months is sent to the newcomers team, where worse persecution, including torture, continues.
Systematic Destruction of Thoughts
Many practitioners who renounced their faith under pressure are sent to a 12-person cell and monitored by inmates. There they are forced to attend high-intensity brainwashing sessions every day after meals.
The brainwashing sessions are divided into three levels, each with two inmates and an instructor. The main focus is to have practitioners watch videos that slander Falun Gong.
At the beginning and end of each month, everyone has to write thought reports. Regardless of the rest of the content, each report must contain a sentence slandering Falun Gong, and another to insult Master Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong. The guards focus only on these two sentences. Those who refuse to comply are pressured to write by the other inmates, otherwise they are taken to the office and slapped or beaten. Afterward, the practitioner is deprived of buying any items, visitations, or making phone calls. Guards also assign inmates to monitor the practitioner’s every movement until the practitioner caves. Once the two sentences are written, the report is posted on the bulletin board.
Daily Restrictions
Every morning, afternoon, and evening—except on weekends—everyone has to raise their fist and make a political oath in the assembly hall, with the oath’s content drafted by the captain. Before lunch, everyone has to line up and do a qigong exercise that is not Falun Gong. While in the cells, practitioners are forbidden to sit in the lotus position (used in the Falun Gong meditation). The instructors and inmates are instructed to report anyone who makes “inappropriate remarks.” For instance, Mr. Gai Guocai was sent to the strict management team for nearly three months, simply for saying, “Falun Dafa is good.”
Using Violence to Guarantee “Transformation” Rate
About every two months, officials from the Jilin Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee visit the prison to check on the status of the practitioners’ “transformation.” Selected practitioners are required to attend a meeting in advance and are forced to memorize their “understanding” of their faith with particular emphasis on the two “required” sentences from their report. Those who do not meet the “standard” are forced to attend additional training sessions with the instructors.
On the “examination” day, practitioners are brought into the rooms in groups and are questioned individually by officials from the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Committee. The standard answer had to contain the two sentences defaming Master Li and Falun Gong, and state whether they will continue to practice Falun Gong. Those who fail the test are met with violence when they return to the cells, including being slapped and beaten. Those who pass have to sign a document that also includes the names of the instructors and prison staff involved in the brainwashing.
Threatened Before Release
Guards categorize practitioners into different levels such as strict management and probation based on their thought reports and responses during questionings. Those deemed to have been completely “transformed” are sent to other divisions for forced labor.
Before release, practitioners are required to complete a form that includes the question, “Were you beaten by the guards?” Most answer “No,” after being threatened by the guards.
According to information collected by Minghui.org, practitioners who passed away due to torture at Gongzhuling Prison include Mr. Liang Zhenxing, Mr. Ma Zhanfang, Mr. Cai Fuchen, Mr. Zhang Hui, Mr. Xu Huijian, Mr. Wang Enhui, Mr. Yang Baosen, Mr. Liu Qingtian, Mr. Bai Jingzhi, Mr. Chen Liandong, Mr. Zhou Ji’an, Mr. Zhang Ziyou, Mr. Liu Yanlong, Mr. Jiang Yong, Mr. Jiang Xiaotian, Mr. Wang Ligong, and Mr. Liu Jiang.
Other practitioners who were tortured for refusing to write thoughts reports include Mr. Wu Dexiu, Mr. Kang Wancai, Mr. Shi Wenzhuo, Mr. Xu Lixin, Mr. Li Yanming, and Mr. Zhang Guojun.
Selected Persecution Case: 81-Year-Old Tortured; 60-Year-Old Sent to Strict Management Team
Mr. Wang Jianying, 81, and Mr. Zhang Guozhi, in his 60s, were detained by the admission team for an extended time as they refused to sign the guarantee statements. They were denied the right to purchase goods, receive visitors, or make phone calls. Mr. Zhang was repeatedly slapped in the face by the guards and constantly interrogated. Both men became severely emaciated.
Mr. Ji Hui was detained by the admission team for almost six months because he refused to renounce his faith. A guard and an inmate colluded to send him to the strict management team, where his food was limited to just three spoonfuls of porridge each day. He was forced to sit on a board for hours every day, and was deprived of sleep as he was woken up every hour during the night. Even after Mr. Ji was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the guards remained relentless, subjecting him to continued shocks with electric batons. He became emaciated after a few months.
Main Inmates Involved
Song Hongwei: convicted of drug trafficking; is responsible for floor management and assists in the “transformation.”
Wang Jianhang: convicted of intentional homicide; devised “transformation” plans for the guards.
Wang Feng: former lawyer who is skilled in designing torture methods.
These three men trained more than 20 inmates to assist in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
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