SHANGHAI: Hundreds of elderly, sick and handicapped prisoners from Tilanqiao Jail were moved to the new Nanhui Prison this week.

After five years of construction and 226 million yuan ($30 million), the jail is the first in the country to combine hospital care with legal confinement.

The prison, which can accommodate about 2,00 prisoners, comprises a number of low-rise buildings set among farmers' houses and vegetable gardens. One building for women has window blinds for the protection of their privacy.

The decision to build the new jail was made by Shanghai's prison administrators who wanted to provide a specialist facility for prisoners in need of frequent medical care.

The Shanghai Prison Center Hospital was also relocated to the new compound.

The place has been designed like a nursing home, with pathways for wheelchairs, elevators and "bump-free" handrails in the wide corridor that separates the dining area from the cells. Specially designed cells for the seriously handicapped and elderly have call-response buttons on the wall for use in case of emergency.

"Prisoners' requests to see the doctor are always granted, even if it is suspected they might be feigning sickness. Medical staff, not guards, will make that decision. Prisoners can also make a complaint if their demand is refused," Dai Weidong, warden of Nanhui Prison, told China Daily on Tuesday.

The cells are cooled with electric fans and in response to the recent hot weather, the warden requested ice be given to the prisoners to help cool them down.

"It's much better here, more spacious and breezy. The facilities are all new and the lighting is better," a 61-year-old prisoner surnamed Liu told China Daily.

Liu suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. Like every inmate with a serious medical condition, he has been assigned a "healthy" prisoner to acts as his carer.

Liu and his carer, surnamed Meng, share a cell.

"I pay attention to him when he gets up and when he goes to bed, just in case he needs my help. I also keep some food for him for between meals, because people with diabetes need to eat more often," Meng said.

In return for his work with Liu, Meng will be given a carer's license from the public health and labor bureau on his release, which he can use to get a job at a hospital.

"Job training is an important part of helping prisoners return to society and preventing them from committing crimes in the future," Dai said.

However, Nanhui is still very much a prison.

"We have tested to see if an inmate could escape through the drains or water pipes, like they did in Prison Break," Ren Jun, who works at the prison, said.

"But we are confident no one will be able to do that here."

(China Daily 08/02/2007 page5)