I have lived in prisons since I was a child, and later worked briefly during them, so I am quite familiar with the situation in prisons before the 80s.
At that time, the prison implemented the principle of "labor reform first, production second", and most of the prisons were called a certain labor reform detachment, and the convicts had to carry out production labor during their detention.
At that time, when the prisoners arrived at working time, they were taken to the work place by the prison guards to work, and then brought back to the prison after the end of the labor, and the prison was actually surrounded by a high wall, and there were flat brick houses built in it for the prisoners to live in, and in the flat brick houses were rows of brick shops for the prisoners to sleep.
Because the prison is also an industrial and mining farm, there are also a large number of workers in it, generally holding thousands of prisoners, in the mine according to the needs of production, divided into two or three different workshops, each workshop has built a prison for detainees, there is a People's Liberation Army company stationed in the mine, there was no armed police at that time, the mines are all companies under the independent battalion of the military sub-division of the region, each workshop where prisoners are held has a platoon of the People's Liberation Army, responsible for armed guards, there are watchtowers around the wall, there is also a watchtower at the gate of the prison, the prisoners enter and exit by the prison guards, and report to the People's Liberation Army standing guard after reporting the number at the door, and after obtaining permission, the prison guards who lead the team will take them in and out。
Now we use the term "prison guard", and before the 80s, there was no such concept at all, except for some production workers and agency personnel, the direct contact with the prisoners is the cadres who manage the production of prisoners and take the prisoners to the place of labor, called "captains", and those who are responsible for the ideological education and political study of prisoners are called "discipline".
Before 1974, these prison cadres were not even issued police uniforms, and it was not until 1974 that the correctional cadres were issued with old-fashioned police uniforms that were blue in winter and white in summer, and even the captains did not have police uniforms, and the prison secretaries, that is, political commissars, were not issued police uniforms, and it was not until around 1980 that all the cadres in the prison were issued police uniforms.
Summer uniforms were first distributed to prison officers in 1974
Winter police uniforms issued by prison correctional officers around 1974
It can be seen that the regularization of the prison team at that time was not in place.
At that time, the prison was also poorly equipped.
Before 1980, there were no prison trucks, and prisoners were escorted in large trucks.
What about other police equipment?
The prison correctional staff are equipped with pistols, the security section, the cadres of the correctional department are also equipped with guns, and later, the workshop leaders, the prison level leaders are also equipped with pistols, unlike today, the prison also has a riot police team.
The guns are equipped with some, but the equipment is backward, and the guns issued are also varied, there are barge guns in the early days, commonly known as "twenty rings", which is the gun used by Li Yunlong in the TV series "Bright Sword", as well as gun cards, revolvers and so on.
A shell gun with a 20-round magazine
At that time, there were even few handcuffs in prisons, and if they did, they were all old-fashioned bronze handcuffs.
Old-fashioned copper handcuffs
I have seen the handcuffs of the prisoner when he was handcuffed and taken away, and I have also seen the handcuffs opened when the prisoner was handcuffed and the prisoner was picked up and the thin wire on the ground was opened.
Even these old handcuffs are not many, so there are also clumsy shackle handcuffs that the prison itself has created like the shackles that escorted prisoners in ancient times.
In many cases, ropes were even used to tie up the offender.
There is also a militia in the prison, but it is poorly equipped.
I have participated in militia training many times, and I have also participated in a long period of armed duty, each time I carry a formal rifle or a Hanyang-made rifle, and the boring line of the gun has already been smoothed, and in 1976, when I was on duty at a special time, I was issued a submachine gun used by the volunteers on the Korean battlefield, and I was so happy that I rested and went home cross-body, and I felt not ordinary cool.
Medium formal rifle
Hanyang-made rifles
A revolver that was rarely issued
American carbines were sometimes used during training.
American carbine
American submachine gun
It was under such rudimentary equipment that the prisons at that time still performed various production and reform tasks excellently.
We must remember the hard work and dedication of our predecessors.