|
The Tilanqiao Prison (), formerly known as the Ward Road Gaol, is a prison in Hongkou District of Shanghai, China. Originally built in the foreign-controlled Shanghai International Settlement, it is now run by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. Throughout the first forty or so years of its life it was the largest prison in the world and earned a reputation as the "Alcatraz of the Orient". ==Ward Road Gaol Period (1903-1941)== Tilanqiao Prison was built to hold those convicted of crimes in Shanghai's International Settlement. Prior to its construction foreign convicts were held in ad hoc prisons within their consulates (or, if British, the Amoy Road Gaol) until they could be returned to their home country, and Chinese citizens were handed over to the native Chinese authorities. In 1901, however, with the growing size of the International Settlement and, in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, a fear the Qing government could no longer control its citizens, the Shanghai Municipal Council drew up plans for a modern-style jail based on Singaporean and Canadian designs. Construction began at 117 Ward Road that year, with the first prisoners introduced to their cells on 18 May 1903. Originally comprising 450 cells across two four-storey blocks, the prison was expanded after the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, when the previously Chinese-run courts of the Settlement were abandoned by the Qing government and occupied by the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP). Further extensions took place in 1916 and continued until 1935 when the prison reached a grand total of some 70,000 square metres (17 acres), including six prison blocks, a juvenile block, a hospital, an administration block, workshops, a kitchen and laundry, and an execution chamber, all surrounded by a five metre tall wall with guard-towers. The execution chamber is considered unique in pre-Second World War China in that it carried out death by hanging, with the body dropping through a trapdoor directly into the prison hospital's morgue. Over the years specialist rooms were added to the prison, including 'isolation rooms' with rubber wallpaper, and a secure command centre for regrouping in event of a riot. The prison population comprised a mix of Chinese and European males found guilty by the Settlement's consular courts (though some European countries preferred not to sent convicts to Ward Road Gaol, instead deporting them). Female Chinese convicts were only interned in Ward Road between 1904 and 1906,〔 after which they were sent to female prisons elsewhere in the province. European women were housed in a Foreign Women's Block, but this closed in 1922 and women were placed in the French Concession's prison. In 1925 a decision was made to no longer imprison Western convicts at Ward Road, instead sending them to the Settlement's Caucasian-only prison: Amoy Road Gaol. Between 1925 and 1930 Ward Road Gaol was therefore a prison predominantly housing Chinese prisoners, controlled and run by a predominantly British and Indian staff. In 1930 Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government negotiated for all male prisoners, Western or Chinese, to be sent to Ward Road Gaol and for it to be run as close to Chinese guidelines as possible. This was agreed in theory, though the British staff were unwilling to enforce Chinese discipline as provided in the guidelines, as this was considered harsh - even by the prison's own rough standards. For its existence, Ward Road Gaol has been considered one of the harshest in the world. Silence was enforced at all times and overcrowding was rife. In 1934 there were only 2925 cells between its 6000 inmates. Tuberculosis was found in nearly 65% of long-term prisoners, suicide was not uncommon, and discipline was enforced through physical punishment by use of long batons. The majority of warders were Indian Sikhs, who were generally despised by Chinese prisoners. Western prisoners were separated from the Chinese and were relatively better cared for, being given lighter duties, separate cells and softer uniforms. After 1930 they too were officially brought under the same discipline system as the Chinese, however. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tilanqiao Prison」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|