It was twilight in mid-April. Cold mist was rising from the deep valley, swamping the brushy green tea trees that dotted the 1,400-meter-high cone-shaped mountain in Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan Province.

As usual, tea pickers were walking home one by one in a line, all dressed in their blue uniforms with white shoulder strips, the typical prisoner's uniform in China.

Their residence was on the mountainside: a two-story old house with grey tiles and clay walls, looking as common as the peasants'houses not very far away. Only the slogan "a special school of rectification" painted at the entrance showed its special identity-- a cell block of Chuanxi Prison, the biggest jail in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Despite the picturesque and tranquil surroundings, the area is too isolated, and cold, to the inmates. People down in the villageat the foot of the mountain were wearing shirts and skirts while here both the prisoners and wardens were dressed in cotton-padded overcoats.

"It snows heavily for over 40 days in winter and rains often the rest of the year," said the cell block's chief jailor Liu Dahua, who has been working here for 16 years. During most of the years he lived in a one-story clay house beside the wards.

"I haven't left here for about two months. It's difficult to godown the mountain without vehicles," he said.

There is only one bumpy and winding dirt road leading to the small town at the foot of the mountain. Without any public transportation, Liu and his colleges often have to walk the 12-km downhill trek for two hours.

Besides Liu's cell block there were another 56 scattered on four high mountains in an area of 43 square kilometers by May 2003.

Old jails in China, with Chuanxi Prison as a typical one, imprisoned inmates in a very different way from what people usually see in movies or TV series. In these prisons, mostly founded in the 1950s and 1960s in remote areas and deep mountains,the inmates were divided into a number of isolated cell blocks faraway from each other instead of being jailed all together in a highly-secured residence.

Chuanxi Prison was set up in 1953 and could hold up to 9,000 inmates. Most of the prison buildings were built of clay from 1950s to 1980s.

Things have changed here. Today only eight cell blocks with about 1,000 prisoners, including Liu's, are left here to watch thetea plantation and they will soon move out of here.

The ambitious plan to move a prison with 7,000 inmates out of the deep mountains has gone on for five years.

In November 2002, all the 1,900 female prisoners had been movedto a new prison in Longquan district of Chengdu, the provincial capital some three-hour drive away. The majority of male prisonerswere moved there in groups by May 2003.

The new prison has all the modern facilities: 4.5-meter-tall enclosing wall, high-tension wire, sentry boxes and a six-story ward building that consist of 144 rooms, 12 bathrooms, 10 big classrooms and a library.

The prison is only 20 kilometers from Chengdu's downtown area and six kilometers from the Chengdu-Chongqing expressway.

"In the 1950s, it was believed to be good for correctional service to isolate inmates from the society and put them in out-of-the-way places," said Wu Bangzhi, the prison warden, "but now we find that such operation has become an obstacle for the correctional work."

The 34-year-old Huang Kai was sentenced to seven years in jail for robbery. During his three-year stay in the old prison Huang had committed a failed escape but now he said, "What I hope most is to perform better and have my sentence commuted."

He moved into the new prison in November 2002.

"My family used to spend several days to get to the prison. I could only see them once a year. But now it takes only one day. Mywife comes almost every month. I no longer feel I'm a social reject bereft of any claim for acceptance," he said.

Besides securing a closer family relationship, prisoners can learn skills of sewing, making garments, shoes and furniture. In May this year, 62 of them will take self-education exams for vocational certificates.

The prison is talking with the local education authority to hold exams in prison.

"In the old jail, all that they could learn was how to pick tealeaves, make tea or farm, which could hardly help them make a living after fulfilled their terms. Now, It is easy for us to invite technicians to teach them useful skills that may turn theirlife around," Wu said.

Yang Shunmei, a 29-year-old Yi ethnic minority who was jailed for drug trafficking, stood out among female prisoners with short haircuts with her shoulder-length hair. The prison allowed her to do so to follow a Yi tradition.

Instead of learning skills, Yang, together with 19 girls, learns dancing and some simple choreography skills in the daytime.

Set up after they settled down in the new prison, the small troupe moved the audience to tears when performing a stage drama "Daughter's Eyes" during a public show. The drama script was written by inmates themselves, depicting a meeting of a prisoner and her daughter.

"We also have a chance to watch shows. There were a number of famous comic stars coming here late March," said Yang, "It's a wholly new experience for us."

A number of Chinese prisons are undergoing or will start the relocation drive like Chuanxi Prison across the country. Accordingto the Ministry of Justice, of the 700-odd prisons in the country,those located in remote areas will be moved to places near cities or busy traffic routes.

"Adjusting the layout of prisons will help improve our rectification and push forward the reform of the penal system," said Minister of Justice Zhang Fuseng.

So far the central and local government have invested 4.46 billion yuan (539.3 million US dollars) in relocating prisons.

As one of the six pilot provinces, Sichuan plans to reduce the present 43 prisons to 34 with 10 relocated and 20 updated. At present, three new prisons are under construction.

(Xinhua News  Agency  April 27, 2004)