SHANGHAI prison authorities demon-strate they can handle multiple crises - capturing an escaped inmate, quelling a riot and defusing a hostage situation - all simulated in a day of drills. Zhao Wen reports.

Two helicopters buzz over hills and fields in Anhui Province. Masked and armed police squads rappel near a hill, disperse and wait in ambush. Hundreds of police move in after getting a helicopter report that an escaped prisoner has been sighted.

This was the scene last Wednesday in quiet Juntianhu area in Anhui, part of Shanghai's prison jurisdiction that includes 13 prisons - two of them in Anhui, the rest in the city and its suburbs.

It was a drill, simulating a break from Juntianhu Prison, a workshop riot and hostage situation - all handled effectively by police and prison personnel. The prison has a population of around 2,000 men, all serving terms of 10 years or less for various crimes.

In the prison's command center, Liu Jinbao, deputy director of the Shanghai Prison Administrative Bureau, was watching the manhunt unfold.

"Move out!" Liu ordered, as police rushed at once to chase the "prisoner" from all sides and forced him off the road into the grassy area where an ambush awaited. He had stolen a prison vehicle.

They got their man in the exercise to test Shanghai prison and police ability to coordinate land and air resources to deal with multiple emergencies.

It was the first ground-and-air exercise in the city's prison history and media were taken along to report the drill.

Juntianhu Prison, 318 kilometers from Shanghai, is the most distant among the 13 prisons under Shanghai's jurisdiction.

More than 530 law enforcement personnel took part in the exercises, including more than 300 prison guards, more than 150 armed police, 70 men from the air police force, SWAT team and local police, according to the prison bureau.

Around 20 police played the roles of escaped prisoner, inmates who incited a riot in the prison workshop and a prisoner who took hostages.

Mock situation 1

2:30pm-2:38pm - Inmates stir up a riot in the workshop

An alarm suddenly sounds throughout Juntianhu Prison. Around 20 inmates riot in the workshop of Cell Block 4, refusing to work and saying the weather is too hot for work. It's 32 degrees Celsius outside, hotter inside the workshop,

Prison guards arrive at the workshop around 30 seconds after the alarm sounds and a riot squad is ready in five minutes to quell the riot.

Mock situation 2

2:38pm-2:50pm - Police end hostage-taking

As anti-riot police pour into the workshop, an inmate instigator seizes a prison employee and takes him hostage, demanding the police step back and put their batons down.

Meanwhile, armed police and a SWAT team stand by. As the two sides confront each other, a masked policeman forces his way into the workshop, tossing in a stun grenade and smoke bombs. The prisoners are subdued and the hostage is freed.

Mock situation 3

3:02pm-3:32pm - Police apprehend escaped prisoner

After a head count, prison officials find an inmate missing, saying he stole a driver's uniform and escape while the prison was evacuating outsiders during the workshop riot.

The command center immediately uses centrally controlled television monitor images to do simulations and desktop maneuvers to track the escapee.. Hundreds of police are dispatched to the eight nearest road checkpoints and local police blocked 12 other checkpoints.

Two EC-135 helicopters hunt for the prisoner. Special vehicles, command vehicles, emergency vehicles, prison vans and ambulances are deployed.

All goes smoothly.

During the emergency exercises, police used various technologies. Spherical cameras continuously monitored the prison areas and transmitted images to a wall of 24 TV monitors in the command center.

From the wall TVs, the riot in the workshop, the cells and other areas could be monitored. Photos of police trackers and aerial photos were transmitted by wireless to the screens to help the commander.

The prison also uses a three-dimensional Geographic Information System platform covering 5,000 hectares inside and outside of the prison, providing a real-time map for the command center.

The technology is one sign of the upgrades in Shanghai prisons.

In recent years, prison facilities have received a comprehensive upgrade, including high-voltage grids and separation fences between cell blocks.

Take Juntianhu Prison for example. Before 2004, the prison had seven separate cell blocks that were far from each other and difficult to manage.

"The old cell blocks had lower walls and poor security facilities. At that time, the power supply was very unstable and the prison often encountered blackouts in summer - a time when we were most afraid of riots and prison breaks," says Yao Jiahua, deputy political chief of Shanghai Juntianhu Prison.

In 2002, construction began on a new main prison at Juntianhu. The 70-million-yuan (US$11 million) structure, completed in 2004, covers 23 hectares, almost 70 percent of which is green space.

It has a capacity of more than 2,000 inmates and is now equipped with low-voltage electrified barriers, an internal electronic monitoring system, alarm system, cable television and video-conference system.

Yao says the inmates were transferred from separate cell blocks to the main prison building and now work in the workshops, rather than working in fields, which makes escape difficult.

The new prison has backup generators and can generate its own electricity in around 30 minutes.

"A prison break is almost a mission impossible now," Yao says.

As of last Wednesday, the prison had a perfect safety record for 4,411 days - 12 years and one month, according to the big screen in the command center.

Yao says the last prison break in Juntianhu happened on March 8, 1996, when two new prisoners cut the barbed wire with a saw they kept secretly during farm work. They were caught three years later in north China's Shanxi Province by prison guards.

The prison used to have several thousand guards, but now there are only around 400.

"With the advanced security and monitoring system, we need fewer prison guards than before but we do a better job," Yao says.

The prison population includes inmates convicted of various crimes and serving 10 years or less. They must serve up to five years before they are considered eligible for release/parole.

On the day the exercises were held, around 2,000 inmates were studying or relaxing in their rooms, like inmates in the 12 other Shanghai prisons because every Wednesday is Education Day.

Inmates can read books or attend activity groups, such as those for singing, painting and writing. They can also study and earn a college degree since Shanghai opened China's first prison "campuses" in four prisons in July. The program will eventually cover the other nine.

Inmates work five days a week, with one day for rest and one day for education. Work ranges from making apparel and bags to toys and electronics. Each receives a salary of less than 10 yuan a day.

"It is compulsory for prisoners to work. But the fruit of their labor is not free anymore," Yao says. "The living environment of Chinese inmates has largely improved in the past few years but still needs improving."

At Juntianhu Prison, 12 inmates share a room, while in a Canadian prison Yao visited, there are only two inmates in a room.

The one-on-one personal planning and guidance for inmates in foreign prisons is also superior to that in Chinese prisons, Yao says.

"Many inmates have no idea of what they are going to do during their sentence when they arrive at the prison. Good planning is crucial to help them face reality, use their time well and become a good person on they day they walk out," he concludes.

Shanghai Juntianhu Prison

Established in 1995, Shanghai Juntianhu Prison's predecessor was Shanghai Minbei Farm built in Tai'ning County in southeast China's Fujian Province in 1958.

The farm was built to provide raw materials for Shanghai's industrial construction in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Over 400 Shanghai police oversaw the facility of more than 8,000 people who were required to undergo education through labor all the time for up to three years.

In 1962, the farm was relocated to Juntianhu in Anhui Province. The Shanghai government spent around 2 million yuan to buy land for two prisons, Juntianhu Prison and Baimaoling Prison.

Chronology

? 1958 - Shanghai Minbei Farm, Fujian Province, reeducation through labor

? 1962 - Shanghai South Anhui Juntianhu Farm, Anhui Province, reeducation through labor

? 1974 - Shanghai Juntianhu Farm, Anhui Province, incarceration of criminals

? 1997 - Shanghai Juntianhu Farm, incarceration of Shanghai criminals sentenced by courts in southern Anhui

? 1985 - Shanghai Juntianhu Farm, incarceration of elderly and disabled criminals

1995, Shanghai Juntianhu Prison, incarceration of all kinds of criminals

? 2004 - Shanghai Juntianhu Prison, new main structure built at cost of 70 million yuan