China News Service, Beijing, June 1 (Liang Xiaohui and Xie Yanbing) Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian hosted a regular press conference on June 1.

　　A reporter asked: According to a recent report released by the U.S. public policy think tank "Prison Policy Initiative", there are 102 federal prisons, 1,566 state prisons, 2,850 local detention centers, 1,510 juvenile correctional centers, 186 immigration detention centers, and 82 former prisons in the United States. Residential detention centers, as well as various institutions such as military prisons, hold about 2 million prisoners.

What is China's comment?

　　Zhao Lijian: I have noticed relevant reports.

The U.S. has a population of less than 5% of the world's total population, but has a prison population of 2 million, accounting for a quarter of the world's incarcerated population. It has the highest incarceration rate and the largest number of incarcerated countries in the world.

In the words of American historian Robin Kelly, the United States is a veritable "prison state."

I also noticed that by the end of 2019, more than 100,000 people in the United States had been detained in private prisons. The public prisons in the United States have been privatized in large numbers, and private prisons have been rampant. This is rare in the world and has become another stubborn and evil deed of American-style human rights.

　　American private prisons are the product of collusion between power and capital.

Since the 1980s, the US government has incorporated private prisons into the national correctional system under the banner of "relieving the pressure of detention and reducing the cost of incarceration", and handed over the responsibility that should have been borne by the government to interest groups.

Driven by profiteering, private prisons expanded rapidly, with the number increasing 16-fold between 1990 and 2010.

More than 30 states in the United States have partnerships with private prison companies.

Interest groups such as private prisons in the United States have long used the three "magic weapons" of political donations, political lobbying and power and money transactions to influence the political agenda and criminal policy of the United States, and have grabbed huge profits by increasing the number of prisoners and prolonging the sentences of prisoners.

　　Private prisons in the United States are a textbook example of forced labor that recklessly violates human rights.

According to statistics, there are 65% more violent incidents in private prisons in the United States than in state prisons.

Prisoners in private prisons face the risk of violence, sexual assault, restricted access to medical care and even wrongful death at any time, and are engaged in high-intensity, low-paid forced labor for a long time.

　　The human rights consequences caused by private prisons in the United States are rooted in the problems of the American system.

On the surface, the United States shouts the slogans of democracy and human rights loudly, but in fact it puts power and capital above fairness and justice.

The U.S. side should reflect on its own faults, treat its own diseases well, and stop pretending to be the "human rights teacher" of other countries.

(Finish)