Armed guards, tactical squads escort dangerous prisoners to new home

Social Affairs

Published: 28 Nov. 2023, 15:10

Armed guards, tactical squads escort dangerous prisoners to new home

Buses carrying inmates leaving for a newly built detention center in Dalseong County, Daegu, while being escorted by police on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Over 2,200 inmates were relocated to a newly opened detention center in Daegu on Tuesday.

Their previous detention center in Hwacheon-eup, a small town in Dalseong County, Daegu, was closed after 52 years of service.

The inmates at the previous detention center arrived at the newly opened facility on six buses that traveled 12 kilometers, roughly a 30-minute ride, to Habin-myeon, also in Dalseong County.

The correctional officers on the buses were armed while the police escorted the buses.

Three hundred officers, including three squadrons, two tactical squads and about 60 traffic officers, were deployed in the relocation.

On Monday, 10 female inmates were moved to the new facility as a practice run.

Their women's relocation followed the same procedures, including armed correctional officers on the buses.

“Because it was such a massive relocation, we had to move some of the inmates as an unofficial rehearsal,” said a Daegu detention center official. “We were prepared, including arming ourselves with guns and bullets in case of an accident.”

According to the Justice Ministry, the newly opened detention center was completed in October 2020. The inmates were to be relocated to the new facility in June 2021.

However, pipeline renovation delayed the relocation for more than two years.

The construction of the new detention center cost 185.1 billion won ($142 million). It is built on 269,857 square meters ( 2.9 million square feet) of land and is three stories high with a basement.

The detention center, however, has no execution room.

The only detention centers with execution facilities are Seoul Detention Center, Busan Detention Center and Daejeon Detention Center.

Some 59 inmates are on death row. Seoul Detention Center has the most with 18, followed by Gwangju Detention Center with 13, Daegu and Daejeon with 10, and four in Busan.

Among the inmates who were relocated was 28-year-old Moon Hyung-wook, who was convicted of online sex trafficking.

Moon, who went by “God God,” was sentenced in November 2021 to 34 years in prison for launching a Telegram pornography ring known as “Nth rooms.”

The case drew a huge public outcry as the participants used blackmail to force victims, some underage, to participate in sexual acts that were recorded. Some victims were raped, too.

Another relocated inmate was 34-year-old Kim Seong-su, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for stabbing a part-timer 80 times at an internet café in Gangseo District, Seoul, over a petty argument.

Also moved was 33-year-old Jang Jae-in, who was given the death penalty for killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents and raping the victim on August 2015.

Daegu's city government plans to renovate the 105,560 square-meter former detention center into a culture and arts center.

BY BAEK KYUNG-SEO, LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]