Newly appointed NPC deputy Wang Heng-qin faces the daunting task of raising the level of professionalism in China's much-criticised prison service.
Mr Wang is party secretary of the Central Institute of Prison Police Officers in Hebei province, which trains guards to run prisons across the nation. Located about 130 km from Beijing, it has 5,000 students and about 400 staff.
Mr Wang knows he has his work cut out. China's prisons have not attracted the nation's best and brightest to their staff, and standards have suffered as a result.
'In one incident, an officer could not even read a prisoner's name. He faced the humiliation of being taught how to pronounce the name by his own prisoner,' said Mr Wang.
Being a prison guard is not a career to be proud of in China, where they have a notorious reputation for poor management and routinely face allegations of human rights abuses.
Mr Wang, 48, refused to answer questions about the prison system's poor reputation, but said he had spent the past five years trying to improve professional standards and public perceptions. Through his efforts, the academy was last year allowed by the Education Ministry to award a bachelor degree to its graduates.
