Description & Facts: "Black Jails" in Beijing - Forced Relocation - Human Rights Watch, November 11, 2009 chinaview.wordpress.com Since 2003, large numbers of Chinese citizens have been held incommunicado for days or months in secret, unlawful detention facilities known as black jails by state agents who violate detainees rights with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The 53-page report, An Alleyway in Hell, documents how government officials, security forces, and their agents routinely abduct people off the streets of Beijing and other Chinese cities, strip them of their possessions, and imprison them. These black jails are often located in state-owned hotels, nursing homes, and psychiatric hospitals. The existence of black jails in the heart of Beijing makes a mockery of the Chinese governments rhetoric on improving human rights and respecting the rule of law, said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. The government should move swiftly to close these facilities, investigate those running them, and provide assistance to those abused in them. Human Rights Watch found that it is usually petitioners who are detained in black jails. These are citizens from mainly rural areas who come to Beijing and other provincial capitals seeking redress for abuses ranging from illegal land grabs and government corruption to police torture. Local officials, with the tolerance of public security authorities, establish the black jails as a way to ensure