Prison guard remembered for excellence
Print Edition
POLICE officers from Shanghai Wujiaochang Prison recently commemorated the first anniversary of the death of their former colleague, Zhu Huiguo.
To his colleagues, his superiors and to the Party, Zhu was a man of outstanding achievements in his job. He died on January 12 last year from sudden brain stem hemorrhage while he was at work, and was later awarded a labor medal by the local labor union and named a hero of China’s judicial administrative system, a recognition of his dedication and hard work.
Zhu, who was only 46 when he died, had worked in the prison for 26 years.
For 23 years, he worked in the jail administrate of prisoners. From a prison police officer to a sergeant, he became an experienced expert of prison management and prisoner educator.
While doing his duty, Zhu was also known to take prisoners wellbeing seriously.
A prisoner surnamed Jin, for example, said that he wanted to be moved to a prison in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region because he believed that it would be easier to get commutation there. Other police officers had already told him that his request was unreasonable and based on a wrong belief, but it was Zhu who really took the time to illustrate related policies repeatedly, and who reminded Jin that staying in Shanghai would even be an advantage. Jin’s high blood pressure, he said, could be handled better here as medical treatment in Shanghai’s is more advanced.
“He could always understand the problems I cared about most, and he cared about me,” said Jin when commemorating Zhu, “I just can’t not believe that he has passed away so soon.”
Zhu was also very careful and astute, which often did not play in the prisoners’ favor. From his conversations with inmates, he would sometimes pick up fragments of information that, once pieced together, revealed major discoveries about security threats, such as the existence of a secret channel used to smuggle contraband into the facility. Zhu took it upon himself to investigate the issue, and had his breakthrough when he noticed a driver of one of the prison’s contractors looking nervous. After questioning the driver and searching the truck, police officers found the forbidden goods that he tried to take into the prison.
“It’s not only a successful crackdown on banned goods, but also an eliminated security risk for our prison,” said Hu Guozhong, party chief of the prison.
In 2012, when Hu tried to select a commissioner to monitor and inspect police work in the prison, he chose Zhu.
“I chose him because he took things extremely serious,” Hu said, “I didn’t want an ornament but a real inspector who could find out problems and urge involved people to rectify successfully.”
In the following three years, Zhu did not let him down.
Though no longer dealing with main tasks of the prison, he still arrived before any of his colleagues, and was often the last one to leave.
“Administration in prison is paramilitary and problems here are usually very trivial, such as improper wearing of police equipment,” Hu said, “But he treated it seriously and recorded violators with videos and photos, which were later classified and distributed to police officers for self-inspection and rectification.”
To be an inspector also meant he had to be strict with his colleagues, but Zhu was not afraid of that and did not make any compromises.
Once a colleague who had received a low evaluation from Zhu called him after work and complained about his relentlessness, but Zhu stood by his ethics and did not make any concessions.
“He always said that that’s just his work, and that people would eventually understand him,” said his wife Shi Zhenying.
“Everybody in our prison was afraid of him, but nobody hated him because we all know he did what his job required him to do,” Hu said, “Actually, many people liked him as he was always ready to help others.”
His hard work paid off. Before he assumed the position of inspector, the Shanghai Prison Administration Bureau recorded about 60 “problems” with the prison each year. In 2013 and 2014, the number dropped to 13 and five, respectively.
Zhu showed such a high sense of responsibility and love for the job that he even sacrificed much of his family life.
Shi lives in Chongming County with her parents and works as a primary school teacher there, while Zhu lived in Yangpu District where the prison is located with his son. On weekend, the father and son would go back to Chongming to be with the rest of the family. Sometimes, when he worked over time, he had to ask his relatives or neighbors to take care of his son for him.
The day he passed away, he was supposed to take his son to the hospital for an eye injury, but asked his wife to go instead. A meeting at the prison had been rescheduled, and Zhu didn’t want to be absent.
After giving his report, Zhu told his colleagues that he wasn’t feeling well and that he would take a rest in his office. He fainted and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors announced his death in the evening.
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