Basang Norbu, a Tibetan expert in legal studies, described the judicial system of old Tibet as chaotic with serf owners detaining serfs at random, inflicting cruel punishments on them and indiscriminately depriving them of their lives.

  "In new Tibet, laws and regulations, which are drafted by the National People's Congress (NPC), apply to  all citizens alike and everybody is equal before the law," said Basang. "People punished are those who have harmed the state's interests or endangered the lives and property of the broad masses of the people."

  Basang said present-day judicial procedures were strict and uniform: a criminal was only judged after the charges had survived tough assessment by public security departments, prosecutors and courts.

  Criminals were entitled to a right of appeal if they disagreed with the sentence handed them, Basang went on.

  Lobsang Geleg, who has long been involved with reforming criminals, said about 30 percent of inmates at the Prison of Tibet Autonomous Region received cuts in their jail terms each year under relevant laws.

  "Not one of the criminals reprieved from the death sentence has ever been executed; once they show remorse or repentance they have a chance of getting their jail terms reduced," said Lobsang.

  Wang Xiaoruo, a specialist in Tibetan history, said under the feudal serfdom system as practised in old Tibet, the dim, dank basements of manors, temples and the regional government headquarters were used as prisons. Vipers and scorpions abounded and the lives of those imprisoned were at risk.

  "Apart from a small number of murderers and rapists, the overwhelming majority of people imprisoned in old Tibetan jails were innocent serfs thrown into prison for being unable to bear exorbitant taxes and levies. The death rate at the prisons in old

Tibet was high, but the Dalai Lama turned a blind eye to it," said Wang.

  Under the serfdom system, which had been practised in Tibet for centuries before it was abolished in the 1959 democratic reforms, feudal lords, upper-class lamas and officials of the former Tibetan government, who made up only 5 percent of the Tibetan population, were responsible for drafting and enforcing laws. The system was designed to subjugate the serfs, and gave serf-owners free rein to punish, torture or kill their serfs or household slaves.

  Cedain Zhaxi, an associate professor of Tibetan history with the University of Tibet, is frequently invited to give lectures to prisons in Tibet.

  "I have seen with my own eyes that the prisons of today mainly focus on reforming the thinking of inmates but at the same time can guarantee their legitimate rights," said Cedain.

  He cited the Prison of Tibet Autonomous Region as an example.  At this prison, education via persuasion is the dominant method of reform. Inside the prison, inmates can read books and newspapers, study workplace skills and can get rapid medical treatment if they fall ill.

  "In prisons during the Dalai Lama's reign, inmates were punished by such cruel acts as gauging out their eyes, splitting their noses and hamstringing them or ripping out their hearts, throwing them into scorpion pits or over steep precipices - things

which are unheard of in today's prisons," said Cedain.

  "Prisons during the Dalai Lama's reign were hell on earth," said Cedain.

  These specialists conclude that the principal role of a prison will differ under various social systems.

In the old feudal serfdom of Tibet, where politics combined closely with religion, and a small number of serf owners possessed the country's wealth and dominated judicial and administrative power, prisons were set up to protect their interests.

But in new Tibet, the broad masses of the people have become masters of socialist China and of their own destinies, and prisons are there to protect their interests, the experts stressed.