Police officers fighting COVID-19 in prisons receive heart-warming support

China's judicial administrative organs at all levels have taken various steps to ensure the well-being of the families of police officers who have been working tirelessly to shield the country's prisons from the novel coronavirus since its outbreak.

Mandatory family leave

Liu Chunhai, a police officer at a prison in Beijing, has been shouldering the work of his whole division on his own since the beginning of the battle against the COVID-19 epidemic, trying his best to avoid any mistake in epidemic prevention.

Apart from his work, what worried Liu most were his pregnant wife, who would soon give birth to their second child, and their two-year-old son. As the epidemic prevented the couple's parents from coming to Beijing, Liu's wife had to take care of herself and their little boy alone. 

Fortunately, after learning about Liu's difficulty, the prison's Party committee promptly reached out to his wife, sending her necessities and telling her to contact them if any emergency happened.

The condition of Liu's wife became more and more prominent with each passing day. With her expected date of confinement only a week away, the committee issued an order of mandatory family leave to Liu, instructing him to go home to be with his wife.

"A short break doesn't mean a retreat. It will help you fight in a better way," one of Liu's higher-ups explained to him. His colleagues also reassured him that they would undertake his work in his absence. 

After a two-hour road trip, Liu reunited with his family at last, bursting into tears when hearing his son call him dad in an adoring tone.

Support teams

In addition to orders of mandatory family leave, a number of support teams were also set up across China's prison system in an effort to help the families of police officers in a more systematic way.

Judicial administrative organs in East China's Jiangsu province organized more than 170 such teams to provide support for the families of police officers, especially those who were isolated in prisons during the epidemic.

So far, these teams have visited thousands of families, helping them take care of young children and the elderly and purchasing daily necessities for them.

The prison authority of the island province of Hainan also developed a series of policies to support the families of front-line police officers, including allowing couples who are both police officers to have one of them stay at home to care for their families.

Mental health care

"Happy birthday to you!" Chen Zhijun, a police officer now working at a quarantine site under the prison authority of Central China's Hunan province, was blessed by her colleagues the day she turned 55 years old.

"Fighting the epidemic along with so many colleagues will definitely be one of my most memorable experiences," said Chen emotionally, who also received a bag of birthday gifts and cards.

A day before Chen's birthday, the authority started a program to send birthday presents, cards and text messages to the province's front-line police officers including those dispatched to Hubei province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, in an effort to alleviate the work pressure endured by these warriors.

Hunan is not alone. The drug rehab authority in Shanghai has also been paying close attention to its police officers' mental health through its psychological counseling hotline and special WeChat groups.

The authority provides police officers with a variety of mental therapies through its live-streamed classes with a large majority of the participants finding the classes helpful.