Prisons under scrutiny after inmate extorts sex from women

China’s management of its prisons was thrown into the spotlight after a news website report detailing how an inmate extorted money and sex from women he met via mobile phone prompted national attention.
The Paper, affiliated with Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post, reported Jan. 20 that the inmate at Nehe Prison in northern China won three women’s trust and persuaded them to visit him. He then threatened to post nude photos of them online unless they gave him money and sex. Authorities in Heilongjiang province, where the prison is located, confirmed the report Jan. 22 and said the incident exposed issues with prison supervision.
China’s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging service has recorded almost 50 million discussions about the topic as of yesterday, when it was also ranked the most-popular issue being commented on by its users. The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, said on its Weibo account that the incident at Nehe Prison showed the need to improve prison supervision.
China had 681 prisons with 1.64 million inmates as of April 2012, according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency. The government hasn’t published more up-to-date data. Bloomberg