Beijing prisons have approved for more than 200 inmates, 1 percent of the city's prison population, to go back home for three days over the upcoming Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 9.

The prisoners are being rewarded for good behavior, according to Saturday's Beijing Daily.

Eighteen of them are women. One, surnamed Li, who was allowed to leave for home on February 11, said the first thing she wanted to do at home was to learn how to use a mobile phone.

"I have been in prison for seven years and have never touched one," Li told the newspaper.

Zhou Ying, a warden at Beijing Women's Prison, said prison authorities had prepared a costume ball, films and seasonal dumplings for inmates to celebrate the festival.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2005)