An electronic bracelet 

Shanghai has approved 10 persons serving sentences to go back home to visit their families during the upcoming Spring Festival. They are required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Feb. 11.

An employee at Shanghai Prison said that the reason is to let well-behaving prisoners get together with their family members during the Spring Festival, the most important festival for all Chinese.

The 10 prisoners are required to wear an electronic bracelet so that they can be monitored by the prison. If the bracelet is removed, it will immediately report to the police. They also need to report their activities to the local police every day, the employee introduced.

The employee added that a lot of conditions have to be met before getting approval. For example, they must have served over half of their prison term, be well-behaved, and will not endanger the society after leaving prison.

Apart from Shanghai, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces also approved certain prisoners for family visits during Spring Festival this year.

As of 2007, Sichuan has approved 4,173 such family visits during the Spring Festival, and no public security accident was reported.