Preface

1. The hillside land where our prison is situated is slate-gray-rock strata. Thus its soil is poor and severely water-worn. Pitfalls and trenches are everywhere. The water source is mainly provided by plenty of farming ponds. Indeed, it is not easy to develop this land. Therefore, due to the land planning, we focus on the features of the regional environment: We have to strengthen the sustainability of water and soil, to protect and nourish the national land resources, to construct a road system, to facilitate transportation with better traffic conditions, to improve the mud-cleaning in farming ponds so that we can develop water sources to establish our own business of agriculture and animal husbandry.

Purpose

2. According to the purpose of prison established by the Ministry of Justice and in cooperation the policy of with water-and-soil maintenance, we protect and nourish the national land resources and meanwhile make something good out of the land. Our prison owns this land. According to the regional plan, we develop and use the land year by year so that our inmates in the prison can be close to the natural environment. Through their labour in agricultural production, they can experience life; at one step further, they can possibly reflect what they have done and change themselves in a better way. The purpose is to develop the hillside land and to train our inmates to have living skills so that they can adjust themselves and get used to the normal society again.

The basic information of the land: location, area, land form, and geology

3. The land of our prison is bordering Erchong River of Danei Hsiang in the north, Jioucenglin of Yujing Hsiang in the east, Cailiao of ZuoJhen Hsiang in the south. Its administration belongs to Yufong Village, Shanshang Township of Tainan County. The gross land area is 542.7656 hectares. On May 21, 1999, 66.153 hectares of the land was given over to be managed by National Sun Yat-Sen. Thus the gross area under the management of our prison is 476.7581 hectares.

4. Our prison is situated near the middle stream of Zengwen River if we take Beilin Mountain as the main geographical line which stretches out to the west into numerous offsets. Within this mountain range, lots of entrenchments and valleys are formed, making a land of low hills. Its highest altitude is 293.6 meter; the lowest altitude is 35 meter, near the downstream of Lujhihkeng (a crater).

5. The geology of our prison involves a mixture of rock stones, mudstones, and debris of the Policene-epoch Jhuolan Strata. Among them, the rock stones are rather loose and soft. Mud-stones often contain thin gray rock stones or stripy-patterned muddy substances. So we know that rock stones are often changed into mud-stones.

Land Basic Information: Soil

6. The soil of the hill land of our prison has developed from rock stones, debris and mud-stones. The different kinds of soils are listed as follows:
Yellow brown earth: This kind of soil is distributed the most widely on the hill land of our prison. Its distribution is normally in the rather flat region. Its color ranges from isabelline to yellow brown. Its geological substance is gravel soil or gravel-like soil. It has a block structure. It presents either acid or neutral reaction.
Lithosol: The color of lithosol is isabelline. It comprises numerous gravel pits. The substance is loose and soft. It has an aggregated structure. It has an acid reaction. Its main distribution is on extremely steep slopes.

 Traffic and hydrologic conditions
     
7. Traffic: If you would like to come to our prison, the route to our prison is from Yufong Industrial Road which connects with Tainan County No. 188 and No. 178: No. 188, going to the direction of southeast, connects with Yujieng Highway. If you turn left, you can go to Yujieng, Jiasian, and Southern Cross-Island Highway. If you take a right turn, you can go in the direction of Sinhua, or Tainan. Carrying on in this direction, you can get to Second Southern Freeway or to No. 8 Expressway, going in the east-west direction, which also connects with Sun Yat-sen Freeway. No. 178, going to the direction of northwest, connects with Siaosinying and Provincial Highway No. 1 (that is South-North Cross-Island Highway). Within our prison, the 500-hectare land, apart from 2 main ways: Mingde line and Animal Husbandry line, there is another short exterior surrounding line. The rest are branch lines. Thus, the journey to our prison is not very convenient. An overall transport network needs to be established.

8. Hydrologic Conditions: The water region of our prison is within the range of water-concentrating region of Zengwen River. In this water region, there are small water-concentrating areas: Lujhihkeng (a crater), Changjhihkeng (a crater), Sianshueihukeng (salt-water lake crater), Fujiangkeng (a crater) and other small-size water-concentrating areas. Within this water table, because of geography and land forms, the river is steep and its currents are short. During the rainy season, the river might flash-flood. During the drought season, we might see a dry riverbed. There are about 90 hectares of the land of our prison where landslides easily happen and which are classified as 6th-level bare land. The rest of the land is covered by golden wattles, silver acacia, and the kind of tree which we recently developed, called mangifera indica. However, the soil is poor and it is not easy to contain water. Though farm ponds are constructed within our prison to provide water for agricultural needs. However, the problem is that the soil slides away very easily, and the life of the farming ponds is also affected. Thus we have to continue to clean up the mud inside the farming ponds so as to provide enough water for agricultural or animal husbandry.