The prison where Bogu Kailai, wife of disgraced former Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai, is incarcerated on Wednesday denied reports claiming the prison has banned prisoners from outdoor exercises since Bogu arrived.

An official at Yancheng Prison, which is located in Yanjiao, Hebei Province some 35 kilometers east of downtown Beijing, said that prisoners conduct outside activities in the prison yard every day, except for between October 2013 and June 2014 when the yard was being renovated, the Legal Daily reported.

During that period, the prison allowed convicts to use another space for exercises, said the official.

The People magazine on Tuesday released a profile story about Jiang Jin, former Chinese national soccer team goalkeeper, who was sentenced to five and a half years in jail for bribery in June 2012.

Jiang recalled his life in Yancheng Prison, saying that because he was a celebrity, many other prisoners asked him to tutor them when they were playing soccer. However, he claimed that all sports activities on the yard were canceled after Bogu was transferred to the prison.

Bogu was handed a suspended death sentence in 2012 for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood.

Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2015 based on the fact that she had committed no intentional crime during her time in jail.