China: Netizens Call for Abolition of the “Black Jail” System  · Global Voices
Abby Liu

Ordinary citizens in China will choose to take the path of petition visit or Shangfang to voice out their grievance. In response, many local government officials would hire agents to detain the petitioners from their home provinces in “black jails” before they have a chance to complain to the Beijing authorities. A recent “fake news” about the 10 agents being sentenced by a court exploded on Weibo, China's twitter on December 2, 2012. TeaLeafNation covered the story with a lot of background information.