Freedom costs $59 in China

BEIJING (Reuter): Prison inmates in one Chinese province paid their jailer $59 to earn a medical parole, the Chinese Procuratorate News said on.

In Anlung County, in China's southern province of Guizhou, the price was 500 yuan (US$59) to reduce an inmate's sentence by one year -- the cost rose 500 yuan for every additional year, the newspaper said.

Liu Fuyuan and Zhang Yuqin, warden and deputy warden of the Anlung County detention center, allegedly took a total of 45,000 yuan ($5,300) from relatives of 44 prisoners and suspects starting in 1993.

All 44 detainees were granted medical parole, the newspaper said.

The report said only that the detention center officials were being dealt with in accordance with the law.