Residents of the alley communities surrounding the prison recount equally grisly tales of prison-life. "I heard there was one prisoner who tried to escape in the 1960s by hiding under a truck," said 66-year-old Yan Yingen, a retired special forces soldier whose garden backs onto one of the prison's electrified perimeter fences. "He was caught and executed on the spot." Mr Yan said locals welcomed the prison's closure and their community's probable transformation into a car park. "We really want to be relocated – it is the only way for us poor to have a better life."