Prison says former legislator has bad attitude

Hualien Prison officials yesterday said that former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chou Po-lun's (周伯倫) unfriendly, uncooperative attitude toward fellow inmates and prison guards will negatively affect his parole application in future.

Chou his six-year sentence at the Hualien Prison on Feb. 17. Prior to his jail term he had been a DPP legislator representing Taipei County since 1993.

According to the prison officials, guards performed a general security check in October, during which they discovered that Chou illegally possessed NT$55,000 in cash.

Chou that the money was from Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), but Wang has denied the allegation.

Prison confiscated the money and Chou received his punishment -- no visitors for two weeks and no free hours for three days.

At the prison, inmates are allowed to meet visitors every weekend and have an hour a day to walk outside their cells for exercise.

Prison said that in addition to the violation, Chou does not get along well with other inmates. He has also requested a later lights-out time and to be jailed alone. Both requests have been rejected.

"He is supposed to be qualified to file his first parole application when he finishes half of his sentence, which will be after three years. However, I'm afraid that his attitude might not go down well with the members of the rehabilitation committee when they are reviewing Chou's parole application in the future," said Wang Jin-tsang (王金滄), warden of the Hualien Prison.

Chou convicted in connection with the Ronghsing Park development scandal.

He was found guilty of accepting NT$16 million from Chiaofu Construction Corp -- the backer of the Ronghsing Park development project -- when he was a Taipei City councilor in 1988.

The project involved developing part of a park near the Sungshan Airport into a commercial-residential zone.

Seven city councilors, including Chou, and six former city government officials were found guilty in connection with the scandal. Most of the others are nearing completion of their jail terms.

On Aug. 3, 2001, the Taiwan High Court sentenced Chou to six years in prison.

Although he said that he would give up filing appeals, Chou and co-defendant Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源), a former Taipei City councilor, lodged another appeal to the Supreme Court on Aug. 25 of that year.

On Jan. 29 this year, the Supreme Court upheld the high court's verdict and made it final.