Novel program lures inmates to give up secrets
Print Edition
TWENTY years ago, a man named Ma killed a taxi driver in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region while smuggling deer antlers.
It was a secret he kept until he confessed to prison officers in Shanghai recently under a special program to uncover unsolved crimes, the Shanghai Prison Administration Bureau said yesterday.
The program is aimed at solving crimes committed by inmates already serving time for other offenses.
The Shanghai New Inmates Prison was yesterday awarded by the bureau for its outstanding work in investigating prisoners for other crimes. Two of the prison’s officers were yesterday awarded as “excellent investigators.”
Wang Weidong, warden of the prison that holds prisoners until they are assigned elsewhere, said the prison helps police solve at least 100 cases a year by quizzing prisoners.
It has been doing this since 1997 when the prison was established. City prisons have helped solve 1,360 cases in the past five years, the bureau says.
“Some prisoners were actually involved in crimes besides those for which they had been convicted,” said Wang.
“Digging out their involvement or clues in the other crimes is also an important part of our job.”
“Settling their other criminal liabilities is helpful not only to reduce their psychological burdens to serve the sentences, but also to ensure security of both the prison and the whole society.”
Ma’s case is one of the most prominent.
From the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, he was originally jailed for one year picking quarrels and provoking fights in Shanghai.
He aroused authorities’ interest when he stayed alone and moody in his cell after being jailed in 2015. He often sat alone in the corner in a daze and slept restlessly, authorities say.
After talking to Ma several times and conducting psychological tests, prison officers believed he had something to hide.
They checked his record carefully and asked police for help. Eventually, they suspected him of the Xinjiang murder.
After being counselled to release former burdens and being told confession would bring leniency, he admitted to the murder.
Ma confessed he and another man killed the taxi driver while smuggling antlers.
He said they had hailed a taxi to carry the antlers they had purchased in Jinhe County to Bole City to sell.
They agreed to pay 500 yuan to the driver, who later demanded more while on the highway.
Ma said he and his accomplice then strangled the man with a rope and threw his body into a fishpond.
They sold the car for 35,000 yuan (US$5,090) in a used-car market and threw the car plate and related certificates into the Yellow River.
They separated and had never contacted with each other ever since, but Ma had been afraid that he would face severe punishment if the murder was discovered.
Soon after his confession, he was handed to Xinjiang police and he was later sentenced to 18 years in jail, but he said he felt relieved after confessing.
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