China to improve conditions of prisons: white paper

China will further improve the conditions of prisons and detention houses and will make other efforts to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of detainees, a white paper said Monday.

Named New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China, the white paper said the country will enhance scrutiny of supervisory activities and the execution of punishment, standardize commutation, parole, and execution of sentence outside prison.

The country will stipulate that criminal defendants and appellants no longer need to wear clothing bearing the name of the detention house, so as to safeguard the detainees' personal dignity, safety, legal property, and legitimate rights including the rights to defense, to appeal, to complain, and to report violations of law, the white paper said.

By the end of 2015, psychological counseling rooms had been built in 2,169 detention houses in China, and 2,207 detention houses had provided two-way video via the internet for those who serve their term of imprisonment in the detention houses, the white paper said.

It added that medical services and life management in prisons and detention houses will be standardized in a bid to safeguard detainees' right to health.

The country will also standardize commutation, parole and execution of sentence outside prison and safeguard detainees' rights to implementation of penalty change, the white paper said. Endi