ABSTRACT
The Hong Kong writer Fang Dan was arrested in 1980 during a visit to the People’s Republic of China. He was held by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) for more than two years--until November 1982, when he was allowed to leave the PRC. A detainee is first kept in a detention center, during which time the PSB conducts a preliminary investigation. Fang Dan was taken to the Peking’s Banbuqiao Detention Center, where he would remain for almost a year. On the overall structure of the Peking prison hierarchy, Fang says that the Public Security Bureau, Procuratorate, and Judiciary are all related, with the real power in the city resting in the hands of the PSB. Its headquarters are in a large building at Front Gate. There are thirteen departments under its administration. People in custody at Gongdelin are usually sentenced to surveillance or labor service.
