“We’ll Beat You to Death With Impunity”: Secret Detention & Abuse of Women in China’s “Black Jails”

1. “We’ll Beat You to Death With Impunity”: Secret Detention &
Abuse of Women in China’s “Black Jails”
A report by

2. 
Inside “Black Jails”
• Detention facilities used to hold individuals without any
due legal process, often operated by government officials
or hired guards.
• Typically guarded by males, women are more likely than
men to encounter physical, sexual, and verbal abuses and
threats in black jails.

3. 
Who Is Affected?
in cases of deprivation of liberty or detainee
mistreatment since January 2012 involves a black jail,
according to data compiled by CHRD.
of black jail detainees are women.
Black jails often detainee the most vulnerable women in
Chinese society: elderly women, women in fragile health,
impoverished rural migrant women, women who lost land or
were victimized by forced eviction, women with disabilities,
and mothers with their infant or other young children.

4.  Beatings & Torture
Wang Delan (王德兰) died in a black
jail in Hubei Province in August 2013,
reportedly from a beating by guards.
Authorities, who claimed that Wang
committed suicide, cremated the body
over her family’s objection.
Chen Chunhong (陈春红) was tortured in
a black jail in Jiangsu Province in August
2013. Guards made her do the
“airplane,” tying her hands behind her
back and lifting them high into the air. At
one point, a local official slapped Chen,
causing her to bleed from her mouth.

5. 
Sexual Assaults
A male guard raped Henan
petitioner Li Ruirui (李蕊蕊) in a
black jail in Beijing in August
2009. He later received an 8-year
sentence—a rare case of black jail
abuse that was prosecuted.
In February 2013, interceptors from Henan
Province attacked Song Qiaozhi (宋巧枝) in
a restroom at the Majialou “relief services
center” in Beijing. One man stripped away
all her clothes, and Song had to use only a
blanket to cover herself.

6. 
Types of “Black Jails”
Black jails can be temporary holding cells set up in buildings and
out of public view, as well as facilities the government has
“formalized” to project an appearance of legitimacy, with some
supposedly providing “education” or “services” for petitioners.
In November 2013, activists
uncovered a black jail inside the
Jiruigong Hotel in Beijing, set up by
officials from Jilin Province.
A facility designated for “legal education”
in Qianjiang City, Hubei Province.

7.  Deprivation of Basic Necessities
Zhang Dinghua (张定花), a petitioner from
Lianyungang City in Jiangsu (on right), was held in
black jails three times between March 2012 and
January 2013. Zhang was not fed nor given a
blanket despite cold temperatures. She was also
deprived of sleep, and when guards noticed that
she had dozed off, they poured hot sauce on
Zhang’s eyes to wake her up.
Petitioner Feng Lanmei (冯兰美) was given
very little to eat or drink, and she was not
allowed to bathe or provided a change of
underpants during a detention in March and
April 2013. For a stretch of five days, she only
had very thin clothes to wear and slept on a
bed frame without a mattress or blanket.

8.  Deprivation of Medical Treatment
Liu Yinzhi (刘银芝), a petitioner from
Hubei Province, was refused
medication when she suffered from
diarrhea and other illnesses while
locked up in a black jail in Wuhan
City for 20 days in September 2012.
Zhao Chunqin (赵春琴), from Zhenjiang
City, Jiangsu Province, was held in a black
jail without access to proper medical
treatment in March 2013 after a violent
violent abduction. Over several days, her
condition—a head wound, abdominal
pain, and bloody urine—worsened.

9. 
Impunity for Officials,
Light Punishments for Abusers
Black jail victims in
Wuhan City, Hubei
Province look to file
a collective lawsuit.
Most of the few reported convictions for black jail abuses have
led to light sentences. The lack of independence of Chinese law-enforcement
and judicial bodies leaves women even more
susceptible to violations.

10. 
Desperate for Freedom,
Deprived of Justice
In October 2013, Hubei petitioner Zhou
Dazhen, who was deprived of food, water,
and medicine, went to dangerous extremes
to free herself, setting ablaze the bed and
blankets in the room where she was being
held. She was only after signing a guarantee
promising not to petition further.
Two female victims of black jails holding a
banner saying “Protest the Detention of
Petitioners in Black Jails.” With so little
possibility for redress once they are freed,
individuals held in the unlawful facilities
often take to the streets to protest their use
and the lack of true channels for justice.

11. Where Are Black Jails? 
Locations of black jails for cases in CHRD’s report. Such facilities exist
in every province and municipality in China.
BEIJING MUNICIPALITY
“Relief services centers”
are sites of countless
abuses against women.
HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE
JIANGSU PROVINCE
Lawyer and activists
documented 96 locations
in Wuxi City used as black
jails as early as 2013.
HUNAN PROVINCE
HENAN PROVINCE
Two women died as a
result of abuses in black
jails, in 2011 and 2013.
TIANJIN MUNICIPALITY
JIANGXI PROVINCE
HUBEI PROVINCE
SHANDONG PROVINCE
SHAANXI PROVINCE
HEBEI PROVINCE
Woman and daughter
held in blacks jails for
nearly 6 straight years,
since November 2008.

12. Take Action
Monitor human rights
abuses on:
@CHRDnet
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Read the full report on CHRD’s website