Prisonization and the pain of imprisonment: The admission training in prisons for drug rehabilitations in China

• In Event: Substance Abuse and Treatment: An International Perspective

Abstract

In 2000, over 120,000 drug users were incarcerated in China for the purpose of drug rehabilitation. The number has almost doubled in 2012 to 227,000. Incarceration has been used as one of the major means of drug rehabilitation in China. From 2007 to 2014, I have interviewed forty former inmates who have been incarcerated for drug addictions. All of them regard it as a painful experience. Among different prison experiences, one of their most painful one comes from the “admission training”. In China, all new inmates experience a short period of intensive “admission training” upon their arrival to the institutions which last from few weeks to two month. Within this period of time, both the officers and the "powerful" inmates actively socialize the new inmates into objects for their own sake. Such a dual process of socialization however turns out to be a physical and mental torture for the new inmates. While the former inmates very often attribute these pains to the personal evilness of the individual officers or inmates, this study locates the origin of such torture in the modern Chinese education, penal and social control philosophy.

Author

• Cheng Shing, University of Hong Kong