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Taipei Prison Expansion Completed: Overcrowding to be Reduced

new building at Taipei Prison
Phillip Charlier 1 Comment ,

A 6 storey building was opened at Taipei Prison in Taoyuan this morning. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said that the new facility will help reduce overcrowding and ensure that international human rights standards are met.

The original prison was designed to hold 2,700 prisoners but already has a prison population that exceeds 3,000. The new building will be able to house 1,300 inmates in 146 cells that have bunk beds and a writing desk.

Taiwan’s prison authorities are striving to improve the country’s prison standards after being slammed by international human rights inspectors from the UN who inspected prisons in Taiwan earlier this year. The prisons were found to be overcrowded and lacking in basic facilities.

MOJ Government Affairs Deputy Director Chen Mingdang (陳明堂) said that the stainless steel double bunks are a big stride in improving the human rights of prisoners by ensuring a standard of “one prisoner, one bed.”

New prison facilities are also being built at Ilan Prison, Yunlin Prison, and Taoyuan Prison.

prisoners sleeping on the floor of an overcrowded prison in Taiwan
Prisoners sleeping together on the floor of the overcrowded Taipei Prison in 2017. From a UDN report that described living conditions as hellish.
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