China: Secret “Black Jails” Hide Severe Rights Abuses

Since 2003, large numbers of Chinese citizens have been held incommunicado for days or months in secret, unlawful detention facilities known as "black jails" by state agents who violate detainees' rights with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

The 53-page report, "An Alleyway in Hell," documents how government officials, security forces, and their agents routinely abduct people off the streets of Beijing and other Chinese cities, strip them of their possessions, and imprison them. These black jails are often located in state-owned hotels, nursing homes, and psychiatric hospitals.

"The existence of black jails in the heart of Beijing makes a mockery of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving human rights and respecting the rule of law," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The government should move swiftly to close these facilities, investigate those running them, and provide assistance to those abused in them."

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