In a new detention center in south China's island province of Hainan, light music is playing.

Broadcast for half an hour every morning and afternoon, the music is intended to relieve stress, says detainee instructor Xu Zhidong, at Haikou's No. 3 Detention Center.

The center has opened its door to reporters in a campaign to win over critics after a string of detainee deaths. Detention centers across the country are to open to the public from July 1, the Ministry of Public Security announced on May 12.

Reporters and detainees' relatives need local police approval or an invitation to visit the cells, dining hall and other facilities and to talk to detainees, said the ministry statement.

If visitors, or independent inspectors selected by the public, could inspect facilities, talk with detainees and watch surveillance videos, the system would be more effective in curbing police abuse, said Liu Renwen, head of the criminal law institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

In February 2009, Wu Hao, deputy head of the publicity department of southwestern Yunnan Province, led a group of Internet users in a visit to a Jingning county detention center to investigate the death of inmate Li Qiaoming, who, the police claimed, died playing "hide and seek."

The visit was fruitless as the center declined to provide surveillance videos and prevented Wu and his team meeting detainees. Instead of hailing Wu for promoting transparency, Internet users accused him of show-manship.

Internet spotlight

The "hide and seek" death caused a national outcry after it was published by an Internet user on Tianya.cn, a Hainan-based forum, bringing China's detention centers under the spotlight.

Internet users launched waves of criticism after a string of suspicious detainee deaths across the country. One popular post listed 20 suspicious deaths since 2008.

On the list were:

-- Wang Yahui, who, the police claimed, died while drinking water on Feb. 21;

-- Ren Huaiguang, who was said to have fallen to death while using the toilet on March 2;

-- and Xing Kun, who was said to have opened his handcuffs with a tissue paper and committed suicide with his shoelace in December 2009.

Each case drew extensive attention and led to further investigations.

The postings prompted police to reform their detention system, said Liu Zhixue, political commissar of Hainan's detention center.

A month later, while the "hide and seek" death was still a hot topic, detainee Luo Jingbo was beaten to death in Hainan's Danzhou No.1 Detention Center.

Former police guard at the Jingning County detention center Li Dongming was sentenced to 18 months in prison with a reprieve of one year. His colleague, Su Shaolun, got a year in jail.

A police officer surnamed Yang with the Danzhou No. 1 Detention Center was sentenced to a year in prison.

"Sometimes, I feel stressed out. Now I'm in a police uniform, but it could be prison fatigues if anything happens," said Wang Feng, warden of the detention center of Hainan's Qionghai City.

Other measures

In Hainan's police stations, the responsibilities of managing the detention centers and solving crime were designated to different deputy heads to prevent torture during interrogations, said Liu Zhixue.

When a police officer heading investigations was also in charge of the detention centers, as in the past, they were more likely to use torture on suspects, Liu said.

Detention centers should be managed by a separate government organ, which is removed from police investigations and responsible to the detainees' well-being, said Liang Huixing, a research fellow with CASS.

Liu Renwen, of the CASS, said avoiding detention center abuse was more complicated.

"The maximum detention time of 15 days needs to be shortened. And we need a law that nullifies a suspect's confession to the police without the presence of a lawyer."

Other measures to prevent detention center abuse included iron bars between the detainee and the police in interrogation rooms, phones for detainees to report emergencies in each cell and patrols through the cells every 20 minutes, Liu said.

Guards say detainee deaths were handled by compensating the families in the past. But with greater attention from media, especially in the Internet, they had to change their attitude to inmates.

"We must treat suspects as humans," said Wu Qingyan, deputy head of Hainan's detention center police.