Prison Transfer
- Publication Date :
- Last updated:2023-04-17
- View count:1028
Can prisoner’s families apply to move the prisoner to a prison closer to them in order to make it easier for them to visit?
In consideration of the inconvenience for family members who are too old or too young or have health condition to travel far to visit a prisoner, prisoners having any of the following circumstances can apply for transfer to another prison to make it easier for their elderly, young or ill-health families to visit:
- A parent or the spouse of the prisoner is aged 65 or older, or any child of the prisoner is under the age of 12.
- Any of the grandparents, parents, spouse, or children of the prisoner is a holder of major illness and injury certificate issued under the National Health Insurance or a holder of disability certificate.
Continuing the previous question, how do prisoner’s families apply for this type of prison transfer?
- A prisoner with this type of prison transfer needs shall fill out a Prison Transfer Application Form and submit proof of household registration issued within the past month and other supporting documents (e.g. photocopy of household registry or household registration transcript that suffice to show the relationship between prisoner and family members, and place of householder registration, major illness and injury certificate from the National Health Insurance, disability manual issued by government) to the prison section or office in charge.
- Relatives of a prisoner can also apply for prison transfer on behalf of the prisoner by submitting the aforementioned supporting documents to the designated contact of the prison. The prison will, promptly after the receipt of application documents, forward such documents to the prisoner and record the date and time when such documents are received and forwarded. The prisoner can then take steps according to the preceding paragraph.
- To streamline government services, when the relatives of a prisoner need to submit supporting documents for prison transfer application to the designated contact of prison, they can do so by fax, via the Internet or by other appropriate means.
Continuing the previous question, is this type of prison transfer request always granted?
- Not necessarily. A prison transfer application may be denied because the prisoner is not eligible or the designated prison that the prisoner wishes to transfer to does not meet the requirements or is unable to accommodate the prisoner.
- When a prisoner has the aforementioned transfer needs and applies to the prison for a transfer, the prison will conduct preliminary review the prisoner’s eligibility. If the prisoner meets the following criteria, the prison will submit a list of the eligible prisoners for prison transfer, their information (name and place of origin), and other supporting documents to the Agency of Corrections for examination:
- The prisoner has been admitted into the current prison for more than three months or has been transferred from another prison for more than six months;
- The prisoner’s remaining sentence to be served is more than four months; and
- The prisoner does not have any parole case pending review.
- The Agency of Corrections will examine the information provided by the prison and approve the prison transfer if it is found that the following criteria are met:
- The prisoner meets the accommodation criteria of the designated prison.
- The number of prisoners accommodated by the designated prison does not exceed the approved capacity.
- The current prison and the designated prison are not located in the same municipality, city, or county.
- The designated prison is not undertaking a large construction project or refurbishment or where there is an emergency safety or health hazard.
- Where a designated prison fails to meet the criteria set forth in A, B or D of the preceding paragraph, the Agency of Corrections may, based on the prisoner’s will, allow the prisoner to be transferred to another prison located in the same area as the designated prison. If relatives of the prisoner are not clear how the delineation of area, they can inquire the General Affairs Section of the current prison.</中戈>
What are the requirements for transferring to an open prison?
Prisoners who will be considered to serve at an open prison must meet the following requirements:
- Active qualifications:
- Having served more than two months in prison.
- Serving a sentence not more than 7 years; serving a sentence of more than 7 years but less than 15 years and having advanced to Level 3 under the progressive treatment system; serving a sentence of more than 15 years and having advanced to Level 2 under the progressive treatment system; serving life in prison but having advanced to Level 1 under the progressive treatment system.
- With evidence of repentance and being physically and mentally healthy for outside labor work; the aforementioned requirement means the prisoner is free of any of the following behaviors or situations:
- Gathers crowds and causes disturbance or threatens staff performing official duties or medical or counseling personnel with violence.
- Has made an attempt to escape or facts show that the prisoner may attempt to escape.
- Makes false accusation repeatedly against or insults correctional officers.
- Has violation record in the past year or has broken prison rules more than three times during the service of sentence.
- Was once selected to serve sentence in an open prison but was transferred to another prison due to seriously disobedience or negligence at work.
- Was once selected to perform out-of-prison work which was stopped due to serious disobedience or negligence at work.
- Currently has a notifiable disease or psychological problem.
- Has severe physical impairment.
- Passive qualifications: Prisoners having any of the conditions below are not eligible for selection:
- Has committed an offense under Article 161 of the Criminal Code.
- Has committed an offense under the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act.
- Is a recidivist. However the preceding provision does not apply if all previous cases were punished by a sentence of less than six months in prison and have been executed.
- Parole is revoked due to committing a crime.
- Has rehabilitation measures to be executed.
- Has committed a crime under Paragraph 1, Article 2 of the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act or domestic violence offense defined in Subparagraph 2, Article 2 of Domestic Violence Prevention Act.
How to apply for serving sentence in an open prison?
- Currently the selection of prisoners for open prison is conducted once every quarter. Prisoners can submit an application to the correctional officers according to announcement made by the facility. The facility will conduct eligibility review and assign the prisoner a preliminary score according to the established rules, and then report the applications to the Agency of Corrections for further review and approval.
- The Agency of Corrections will review the scores of prisoners participating in the selection and submit the list of applicants ranked by their score to the Open Prison Selection Committee for decision. Any decision of the Selection Committee must be passed in a meeting by at least the majority of committee members present. The assignment will then be done based on prisoner’s wish and the needs and vacancies of open prisons.
- Currently open prisons that accommodate male prisoners include Bade Minimum Security Prison, Mingde Minimum-Security Prison, Ziqiang Minimum-Security Prison, Taitung Prison Wulin Minimum-Security Branch affiliated with Taitung Drug Abuser Treatment Center, Taichung Minimum-Security Branch of Taichung Prison, and Pingtung Minimum-Security Branch of Pingtung Prison.
Can family members be notified in advance the date a prisoner will transfer prison?
- For security reasons, prisoner’s families will not be notified of the time and date of prisoner’s prison transfer in advance. However the previous prison will notify prisoner’s family members or nearest relatives in 3 days after the prison transfer operation is completed in writing, by phone, via Internet or by other appropriate means, and make a record of the notice, unless such notice cannot be made.
- If the prisoner has several family members or nearest relatives, the previous prison is only required to notify one of them.