Taipei Women’s Detention Center Public Service Plan

To fulfill the government’s instruction of performing public service, boost the mutual understanding between civilians and the Center, build smooth communication channel, maintain good justice quality, secure the human rights of detainees by conforming to the enactments and substantially fulfill the public service police to the basic level, we hereby proclaim the public service plan of Taiwan Taipei Women's Detention Center as below.

A.What are we doing for the detainees?

Operation of receiving new detainees

When a detainee has entered into the Center, we immediately start the receiving operation:

(1)Health exam: for any new detainee, the Center will make preliminary check and inquiry on any trauma, tattoo or disease carried in and record it; for the health one we will accept, yet, for the sick one, we would count on his/her severity to make another proper arrangement.

(2)Safety check: articles carried by detainee will be thoroughly checked to block out any drug, weapon or other contraband coming into the Center. After the safety check is confirmed, the Center will preserve all cash, articles, identification documents and clothing carried by detainees.

(3)Inquire new member's home status as the personal counseling basis; book the emergency contacting phone call of new member's relatives.

(4)If the reporting time is out of ordinary dining time, the Center will supply food for him/her to eat. After eating, new member will be conducted to take the suits applied exclusively in the Center.

(5)Arrange the residing cell: to be allocated according to the new member's identity (compelled disciplined person, retained person, defendant or imprisoned person).

B.Medical care and health work:

Medical care and outpatient service

The top critical task of correcting crime is to recover the detainees’ health, letting them to get rid of sickness or addiction. The Center has arranged various outpatient courses for this need:

1.If emergency status is encountered on a weekend, make detained outer medical care immediately; if patient needs to take surgery operation, dialysis or hospitalization, send him/her to the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital.

2.Free-charge for any medication taken in the Center; for outer medical care case, the detained patient should carry personal NHI card at hand and pay the shared medical, surgery or hospitalization cost alone.

3.Pharmacy, medical care room, ward, wagon, ambulance and basic medical equipment are equipped sufficient for primary medical service requirement.

4.Regularly allocate two permanent nursing technicians to perform regular nursing service in the Center; and dispatch eight outpatient doctors and three social working nurse teams from different hospitals to timely take care of the detainees in the Center.

5.Each detainee should at least take one X-ray inspection per year to discover lung illness, if any. In the first six months of 2006, we’ve inspected 385 detainees, 19 of  them were found to have lung disorders. In the same period, we have performed six times of venereal disease protection declaration speeches to teach the detainees about correct health knowledge; 315 attendees were in the audiences to hear the speeches. And each month we'll accommodate to the Taipei City Venereal Disease Protection Center performing AIDS and syphilis blood screening program to all detainees in our Center 915 persons have taken the said blood tests and 8 persons were found affected by it. In the summer of each year, we will make vaccine injections to all detainees. We also open psychological outpatient division (546 patients were taking the medical care in the first half year of 2006), (drug) addiction abstention outpatient division (599 patients taken in the half year), dental outpatient division (163 patients taken in the half year) and dermatologic outpatient division (305 patients taken in the half year); and in the first half year of 2006, there were 4359 patients taking medical care in the general internal medicine division; the medical care service made in the Center makes sound contribution to maintain detainee health.

6.As coordinating to the reporting system to superiors, we pay attention to any contagious disease epidemic. To prevent any virus from intruding into the Center, we've built a responding plan to strictly check suspicious patients with fever or cough  symptoms. Since the Center has dense population zones we spray sterilizing liquid and bleaching liquid at the detention zone every day. Thus, we've safely passed the epidemic outbreak period without getting infected.

Since the detainees can hold a regular life in the Center, take regular medical care and medication and accept long-time rest, therefore, most of them can recover health, or at least largely improved the physical status.

l  Health tasks:

1.Environment maintenance and sterilization: a detainee coming into/out of  the detention zone will be uniformly taken urine sample and measuring body temperature. The Center will follow the responding plan to carefully plan for the details as blocking out virus coming in. For the key zones, we disinfect them once daily.

In normal times, we sterilize the Center once per week. Cleanness and health is particularly requested to the dining utensils in kitchen and cooperative shop. In order to eliminate contagion, we apply high-level standard to strictly request hygienic habit in all cells or rooms.

2.In the summer season, we particularly focus on sufficient water supply; each detainee should take a shower daily, and in winter we apply hot water showers three times per week to make good personal cleaning habit. For detainees with dejected, depraved or dirty habits, we force them to obey the Center's regulations keeping personal neatness and cleanliness. If detention cell cleanliness is poor, we will ask residents to clean it up; we do not tolerate any person, manner or article becoming the disease media.

l Daily life care:

In the detention period, the Center will be responsible for clothing, food and residing supply and care to the detainees, holding the character converting activities, security management and character grading business.

1.Clothing: each detainee has an annual clothing budget of NTD 907 from the government; in summer time, the Center supplies them pants, and in winter time, they will get jackets, pants, bed quilts, blankets and bed sheets Detainees also are allowed to carry their own clothing into the Center for personal use.

2.Food: additive food budget of each detainee is NTD 1500. As for principal food, in summertime the government supplies 450 gram of brown rice each and in wintertime it is 500 grams. All other incomes (operation surplus, cooperative shop surplus for food subsidy portion and swill sellout income, etc.) are used to improve the detainee food. Detainees have rice porridge, steamed buns and dishes for breakfast, three dishes (two are meat dishes and one is vegetable one) and one soup for lunch and dinner. Each week we make additive food supply as four dishes and one soup in lunch or dinner each, the menu of each meal will be posted at apparent place of  visiation room. In the Lunar New Year Festival we increase food supply content to the detainees for two days, and in the Dragon Boat Festival and Moon Festival we do it for one day. Since Nov 2000, we follow the MOJ regulations to abandon the dining portion of cooperative shop, and since then the suspicion of “great dishes supplied in jail”, “the Center deprives detainees” and “rich members get comfortable life in jail” has been cleared; all detainees are uniformly fair and no different level would exist in the imprisoned administration.

3.Residence: ventilation, lavatory and luminance equipment are built as following the related standard; we demand the interior to be neat, comfortable and clean. Cell density is under suitable control and not too crowded. The Center holds monthly living forum and dining meetings where cell representatives can express their suggestions freely. The Center holds the principle of “strict discipline and flexible living care” to care for detainees to the maximum extent.

l Mental counseling and conducting activities

When detainees come to the Center, they unavoidably  face an onslaught of  stirred emotions. Our counselors advise them one-by-one with a  loving heart and patience and counsel them individually. The Center will arrange various activities to comfort the member's emotions, elevating their morality level and reforming their character to a bright direction.

1.Group counselling: at present, in each month, we will have 10 honorable teachers to perform 24 sessions of conducting activities. Also, we hold one reviving protection activity and one venereal disease protection lecture from Taipei City STD Control Center. And the conducting films and karaoke singing activities are held 32 times.

2.Religious conduct: each month, we hold 22 Buddhist activities by Buddhist groups as well as 8 Christian activities and 8 Catholic ones.

3.Holding outdoor activities once per week to release both physical and mental stresses.

4.About three thousand books are stored in the library for detainees to borrow and read; all of them are spirit inspired books. We also hold a reading club in the Center; up to end of July, 2006, there were 32  reading club turns made in the female center and 19 turns in male center. Each reading club lasts for three months Club members (15~20 members) would read 3~5 inspired books each; at end of each club turn, club members would make reading conclusion speeches or write their reading reports instead.

5.In the Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, Mother's Day and Moon Festival, the Center will hold the extended family call or visiting visitations. In 2005, we've served 1,271 detainees and their relatives in Lunar New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Moon Festival for direct visitations and 742 detainees for phone call visitation.

l Operation and skill training program:

The purpose of  the operation program is to let detainees learn diligent habit; since the prison terms of detainees in the identity of defendants are unclear yet, therefore, we allow them to select whether to attend the operation program or not; and since the members are under large fluctuation status, we thus mainly plan for the simple work program. In the Center we build two operation fields for male members and one for female members; the total member attending the operation program is about one hundred. They can work for commodities coming from various fields. The payment distribution follows the MOJ regulations to proceed.

In skill training, the Center has opened  gardening, cooking and sewing classes to hire outer instructors to teach class attendees. In July 2006, the color life floriculture design class has opened in the female member center; this enables short-prison-term detainees to learn a skill after leaving the Center.

l Character crediting:

The Center will credit the character, operation and behavior that each detainee has shown as the reference for his or her subsequent process.

l Safety management and maintenance:

To keep detainees from single fighting, agitating, suicide, bullying or group fighting, the guarding personnel follow the enactment to enforce guarding, defending, managing and checking duties and hold discipline in the Center.

C.What can we do for the detainee's relatives?

l Visitation:

In the first half year of 2006, detainees's relatives have applied for visitations for 5,344 times; to simplify the application procedure, the Center has set up the number-withdrawing machine to reduce the waiting time of applicants. Visitation-inhibited members are informed to their relatives right away, avoiding their relatives from making unavailable visitation travel. For the visitation time in national holidays and consecutive vacations, we will post it on the Center’s gate and website in advance. We also accept call inquiries from the public the hotline is 2274-2022.

The visitation room is subsequently under enhancement. In 2006, we've completed the green plan and added lavatory equipment, hand dryers, hand-washing cream and help bells. Handicapped visitors can use the help making emergency help call. And now, the related department is working on other facilities to facilitate the relatives of detainees.

We will timely post the superior's related propagation documents and posters, and dynamically proclaim the information of  visitation regulations or withdrawing detainees to court or releasing them. For the article checking regulations, we have disclosed them on the bulletin please follow them to proceed.

Pleading hotline:

To correct the administration ethics, the Center welcomes the public to report corruption and illegal affairs. If you have discovered judiciary swindler defrauding people, call us at the hotline: 22748962  or send a mail to Banqiao Post Box 28---48 upholding justice.

l Investigating the public's opinions:

If there is the event of a bad officer's responding attitude found, fill out the Opinion Investigation Sheet and put it into the Administration Revolution Opinion Box; directing personnel in the Center will deal with it fairly. If any duty found to be taken by respective officer, the Center would follow the related enactment to proceed. And if the pleading is made purely by misunderstanding of enactment, the Center also will make sufficient interpretation to the opinion raiser.

l Applying for certification:

To apply for certification or take back the Center-preserved cash, please contact the General Affairs Section. If certification document is sufficient, the case dealer will be asked to handle it immediately.

l Inquiry hotline:

If  a relative wants to inquire whether the a specific detainee is in the Center or not, call 22748959 to check it; to inquire whether a specific detainee is going to court, prison term is due or transferred out on the visitation day, or inquiring about the visitation application handling time, call 2274-2022. Please make phone call to confirm before traveling for visitation visit.

D.Direction to go forward in the coming days

Our long-term target is to build the Taipei Second Prison at BAIPAO Lake of Xizhi Township, Taipei County; it is planned to hold 2200 prisoners; the land shares 19 hectares and building area is over 5 hectares. The soil preparation and miscellaneous work are complete already, and the internal design of main buildings are more thoughtful and hardware more substantial. We will go on dedicating to the public service work, expecting you to conduct us and boosting the ShihlinDetention Center to nonstop progress and upgrading.