A recent NPR story highlights China's covert system of "black jails": facilities located inside hotels or storefronts where local or provincial government officials imprison residents who attempt to file complaints of corruption or incompetence on the part of the local government with the national government. Although the existence of these jails is an open secret in China, their extralegal nature makes it particularly difficult--even by Chinese standards--to determine what transpires inside.

Jin Hanyan of Hubei Province traveled to Beijing to complain of corruption back home. According to NPR, "she accused her county's Communist Party secretary of corruption. For this, she says, she was sent to a 'study class' in an abandoned factory. Of course, she says, no studying actually went on in there.

'In the mornings, they'd yell to wake us up,' Jin says. '...If you didn't obey, they'd beat you to within an inch of your life and withhold medical treatment if you got sick. They said the county party secretary told them it was not illegal to beat us to death.'"  (Read more after the jump!)

In another instance of the Chinese government almost actively recognizing the inconsistencies in their prison policies, Chen Cuilin, a woman detained by authorities in a mental hospital (ankang) in Jiangsu province was released for 50,000 Yuan earlier this week.  While the policy of using Mental Hospitals as temporary holding cells is certainly nothing new, it has recently come back in vogue, as this is the second instance this month of a mentally capable person being placed in one of these facilities as a kind of makeshift detention center.  While Chen Cuilin is not as well known as He Jian, a signer of Charter 08, her story also has a unique twist: she was released, albeit in exchange for a hefty sum. 

After being detained and moved through several black jails, and with her family constantly searching for her, they were finally informed by officials that she was being detained.  As there were concerns for her health, the family gathered 50,000 Yuan and submitted a written promise that Chen would no longer attempt to petition Beijing.  However, despite her slow recovery from an assortment of health problems that developed during her time in the various improvised detention centers, Chen remains certain that she will continue to appeal to Beijing to at least set up a trial for the men who killed her husband years ago.