2026-04-12 00:00 United Daily News / Reporters Yuan Zhihao and Shao Xinjie / Special Report
“The sacrifices of Tu Mingcheng and Cao Ruijie could have been avoided. If the reports had been made earlier, the police officers would have been mentally prepared to encounter fugitives and would have been extra cautious. The Correctional Agency’s openness and transparency in allowing the police to issue early warnings is crucial,” said Wang Boqi, Associate Professor of the Department of Crime Prevention at Ming Chuan University. He believes, “It’s better to make early reports and proactive planning than to delay reporting.”
Wang Po-Chi pointed out that the design of the public service prison system is primarily for long-term inmates about to leave prison. Through an open, unfenced environment and low-level management, it allows them to gradually adapt to a normal life pace so they can reintegrate into society as quickly as possible after release. Besides the greater freedom, what inmates most desire is the ability to reduce their sentence by four to sixteen days per month based on a progressive treatment level. Following the deaths of the two police officers, the Correctional Agency has reviewed its screening and reporting mechanisms.
He stated that both the Correctional Agency and the police belong to the judicial and public service system, and there are absolutely no obstacles to establishing a cooperative platform or a single-window communication channel. If an inmate fails to return to the detention center within the stipulated time, even a minute’s delay should be immediately reported to the national police force. It’s better to report falsely than to delay and cause a tragedy.
“The most important thing is to implement the reporting system effectively, ensuring that frontline officers are aware of any escapes and can proceed with preparedness,” said Guo Ruoxuan, the former head of the Minquan Police Station and now the investigation captain of the Tainan City Police Department’s Second Precinct. She added that since the deaths of her two colleagues, the Correctional Agency has become more proactive in reporting and hopes this will not be relaxed. She emphasized that society has too many expectations of the police, expecting them to handle everything, but due to the often dangerous nature of their duties and the relatively poor pay and benefits, “who would want to be a police officer?” Therefore, manpower shortages are currently a dilemma for the police.
The Control Yuan’s investigation revealed that when Lin Hsin-wu was found missing at Ming-teh Military Detention Center, only the Fengshan and Jiali Precincts were notified for assistance, without contacting other police agencies. The home visit monitoring mechanism was also not implemented, and the related search and rescue mechanisms were inadequate. Furthermore, the selection criteria for military detention centers were lax, legal regulations were insufficient, and the initial and secondary review mechanisms were not robust, frequently drawing criticism for being opaque operations. In 2022, the Control Yuan corrected the actions of the Correctional Agency and other units.
At that time, the Control Yuan’s statistics showed 49 cases of inmate escapes or failure to return home for home visits over ten years. In the following five years, 20 escape incidents occurred at Tzu-chiang and Ming-teh Military Detention Centers, a significant increase in frequency.
Lu Weijun, deputy warden of Mingde Criminal Correctional Institution, said that the review process for applications to return home for visits is now more stringent, and the administrative efficiency for reporting absences has been shortened to two hours. Inmates returning home for visits must clock in on their mobile phones, and must report any delays on public transportation or injuries sustained while on the road. They may even be required to use video calls to take pictures of their house numbers or provide evidence from news reports. “These measures are efforts to respond to societal expectations.”