Chinese jails are shocking, but not in the way you would think

Usually when we wax on the topic of Chinese jails, we invariably chat about beatings, places to detain dissidents and "innocent" games of cat & mouse turning into something more sinister. We don't usually think of basketball courts, East-West fusion architecture or greenery.

But if these pictures compiled by Chinasmack are any indication, at least some jails in China aren't terrible places to be. For instance, Jiansu Province Yancheng Prison boasts an Olympics-sized running track, luxury offices, six new outdoors basketball courts and potted plants by every cell door. Meanwhile, Guangdong Province Qingyuan Prison's front door screams modern Chinese glamor and the inside has trees and carefully-trimmed shrubs a plenty.

Interestingly enough, there doesn't seem to be any people in these luxury criminal compounds. And, netizens helpfully point out, when people do fill these spaces (if they ever), the chances of them not being officials and white collar criminals is pretty nonexistent. As one said jokingly (kinda), here's how the prison budget meeting probably went:

“Right now we have some funding. Should we use it to build schools or to improve the conditions in jail?” “Everyone think whether you’re going to spend any more time in school in the future…now we vote.”

Note: Even more interesting, it looks like the original MOP thread on these Chinese jails was deleted, making Chinasmack the only place to go for pictures. Hmmmm...