Parole committee rejects serial rapist's application

Taipei Prison rejected an application for parole by the "Hwakang Wolf" (華岡之狼) on Tuesday, dealing another blow to the serial rapist's bid to become a student at National Taiwan University (NTU).

Huang Cheng-nan (黃徵男), director of the Ministry of Justice's Department of Corrections (矯正司), said yesterday that the Taipei Prison's nine-member Parole Committee reviewed the rapist's application on Tuesday and voted five to four in favor of keeping him behind bars for another year.

The "Hwakang Wolf," surnamed Yang (楊), was sentenced in 1996 to a 16-year jail term on more than 30 counts of rape and sexual harassment, in which most of the victims were female college students.

Yang is serving his term in Taipei Prison.

He participated in the Joint College Entrance Exam (JCEE) last summer and gained admission to the Sociology Department at NTU.

His first parole application was turned down last year due to public fears that he may reoffend.

But Yang managed to gain a one-year leave from the department to keep his admission valid for another year.

According to NTU, Yang's leave of absence will expire this September and he must be enrolled and pay the tuition fee this fall to become a freshman or he will lose his admission.

Despite the rejection of his parole application, Yang's hope of becoming an NTU student has not completely vanished.

He is still allowed to pay the tuition fee this fall and file a drop-out application for another year, provided he can secure the approval of Taipei Prison and the justice ministry.

"According to the Taipei Prison psychologists, Yang has made tremendous progress during his mental rehabilitation regarding his violent behavior against women," Huang said.

"But, they also believe that it is very possible that Yang could easily commit crimes again. As a result, the committee decided to keep him behind bars for at least another year."

In the meantime, Huang mentioned that the ministry is still trying to see if Yang's case falls under Article 26-1 of the Law on the Execution of Prison Punishment (監獄行刑法), which would grant him a day out of prison under the custody of guards to go to NTU and finish the necessary paperwork for the one-year drop-out application.

"We still encourage him to go for further study. If he fits the regulation, he will need to wait for final approval from the ministry," Huang added.

Last year, 33 prisoners from jails nationwide gained admittance to universities out of the 38 who took the JCEE last summer.

Among them, 14, including Yang, gained admission to national universities.

Another inmate, surnamed Huang (黃), gained admission to the Sociology Department of NTU. Unlike Yang, Huang's parole application was approved, allowing Huang to become a student at NTU last fall.

Huang was sentenced to life in prison 12 years ago for a gang robbery.

NTU said that Huang did an OK job on his academic work and got along well with his fellow students throughout the past year.

"No matter what background our students have, we'll try our best to help. Huang did well," said Wen Chen-yuan (溫振源), the dean of the Office of Student Affairs at NTU.