The attempted jailbreak at Kaohsiung Prison on Wednesday prompted calls for reform of the nation’s prison management system, while government officials admitted major flaws.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) yesterday said that the ministry investigate the siege that ended with six prisoners committing suicide, and acknowledged that the prison system had been overcrowded for years.
After a Cabinet meeting, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said that a Ministry of Justice report found major flaws in prison management that should be corrected immediately.
The government will sternly face the issues of safety regarding inmates, improving risk and crisis management, educational training and prisoners’ access to complaint channels, Mao said.
Chen told a news conference that rehabilitation personnel in the nation’s 48 correctional facilities have all been recalled to work to “stabilize the prisoners’ mood.”
The nation holds 63,000 inmates served by about 8,000 rehabilitation workers, Chen said.
The system is overcrowded, and to balance the scales between the maintenance of human rights and prison management, there were still many hurdles for correctional facilities to overcome, he said.
Elsewhere, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that he did not approve of the prisoners’ approach and strongly denounced how the prisoners had ended the incident by taking their own lives.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) called on the president to grant amnesty or commutation to older prisoners, those with a low risk of reoffending or those who had received light sentences to ease overcrowding — as previous presidents have sanctioned.
“Parole conditions could also be relaxed for [those mentioned], granting them an early release,” he added.
While each inmate should be guaranteed a space of 0.7 ping (2.3m2) according to the regulations, each prisoner has 0.4 ping, Liao said, adding that while there are three or four prisoners for each prison worker in foreign nations, in Taiwan the ratio is about 20-to-1.
Liao said an overloaded prison system could harm inmates and also significantly affect personnel.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said amendments should not be rushed.
“If related laws were immediately amended, [six] would to a certain extent become martyrs or tragic heroes. At this point, what should be done first is to stabilize the prison situation,” Huang said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS