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!)

According to a Radio Free Asia report, He Jian, one of the approximately 300 signatories of Charter 08 still residing in China, was placed in a local mental hospital by authorities earlier this week.  After tweeting about his detention in “black jails” and the abuse of his mother by police, He was finally taken in to custody by government officials.  His detention comes a day after revealing that the local police had informed his mother that he needed to report to the police station. 

The use of psychiatric hospitals as make-shift detention facilities for petitioners and dissidents is a longstanding practice within the party, according to a 2002 report from Human Rights Watch and the Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry.  While detained in these facilities under the guise of mental illness, people that the Communist party views as incendiary are frequently forcibly medicated and tortured.  There is no word yet on how long he will be confined nor recognition of the government’s role in the matter.

In perhaps one of their more unorthodox interview situations, the Associated Press interviewed petitioner and protester Zheng Dajing from inside one of China’s increasingly infamous “black jails.” Zheng was only partially visible from behind a thick plastic sheet and confirmed his identity by reciting his wife’s cell number.  Zheng was jailed for organizing protests associated with “Legal Publicity Day,” meant to promote the Chinese legal system.

While protesters in the U.S. petition with relative ease - for everything from tax reform to protecting the livelihood of certain small animals - in China, petitioning the government can be met with an immense amount of graft and even jail.  

Despite the current political atmosphere, where complaints can land one in a "black jail," China has a historical legacy of petitioning.  Petitioning in its current form began during the Ming dynasty (1300 AD).  At that time, it was used as a means for citizens to complain about corrupt local officials (sound familiar?) to the Imperial government. 

Reports of the increasing prevalence of “black jails” are cause for concern.  Recently, the Communist Party’s state run magazine ran an expose on the subject of these jails, particularly their profitable nature.  Local officials pay black jail guards to keep petitioners in jail.  Their incentive? To keep the number of people filing grievances against them low and giving citizens no recourse.  If ever there were a need for strong legal reform in China to protect citizen’s rights, it would be now.

Throughout Chinese history, a trip to petition the central government over grievances in the countryside was a precarious ordeal.  With long distances to cover and few transportation options, the total number of petitioners arriving in Beijing remained manageable. Due to modern increases in technology and transportation, however, Beijing has been flooded with complaints from all over China.  In response, Beijing is cracking down.  A recent report from Human Rights Watch, “An Alleyway in Hell” suggests that this petitioning has become increasingly dangerous, or as Beijing University law professor He Weifang suggests, “…for disadvantaged people who have suffered injustices… [the petition system] is like drinking poison to quench a thirst” despite the fact that there are lnumerous “…abuses ranging from illegal land grabs and government corruption to police torture.”

On arrival, the petitioners face a series of dilemmas.  First, the petition system as a whole is desperately overwhelmed, and it can take up to ten years to get your case heard by the petition system.  Second, if your case is finally heard by the appropriate government bureau, there is little chance of a positive result.  According to a 2004 survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, only 0.2 percent of people “successfully resolved their problems through the petition system.”