Community correction to be tried nationwide

By Wang Jingqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-23 08:12

The central government is promoting an experimental community correction program nationwide to keep minor lawbreakers from being jailed.

"Community correction, a non-imprisonment penalty enforcement system, fits China," reads a circular on community correction jointly issued on Wednesday by the Supreme People's Court (SPC), Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice.

The circular also calls for further standardizing and legalizing the practice.

Nan Ying, vice-president of SPC, said at a Wednesday meeting that community correction is an important reform to the current penalty enforcement system.

"By practicing community correction, the offenders can be educated in a better social environment without being infected by other criminals in prisons," Nan said.

Community correction is a system in which minor criminals go back to their communities and live in group homes under supervision. Government departments, together with social organizations and volunteers, help correct their behavior, so that they can go back to society easier and with less risk.

The community-based practice only applies to those considered low risk, including those on parole, probation, held in custody, serving temporary out-of-prison sentences and those who have been released but are deprived of their political rights.

China decided to pilot community correction in 2003 in six provinces and municipalities, including Beijing. In 2005, the pilot area was expanded to 18 provinces and cities.

Currently, 27 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, including 208 cities, 1,309 counties and 14,202 towns, have adopted the practice. Some 187,000 people are receiving community correction, with 171,000 already released, according to latest SPC figures.

Statistics show that only about two-tenths of a percent of those in the program relapse into crime, a ratio much lower than among those who are put behind bars.

Community correction has kept the risks of having these prisoners in communities at bay, while mobilizing social forces to participate in correction work.

Such a practice can lower the cost of keeping prisoners, help convicts build a new life, and create more tolerance from society.

The practice is especially helpful to China, the world's most populated country, which has been feeling a pinch from the rising number of prisoners.

According to SPC, China now has 1.6 million inmates in prisons and an average of 650,000 detainees in the detention centers daily.

However, Wang Hongyu, a professor with China University of Political Science and Law, said the community correction system needs clear legislation to regulate rights and responsibilities of all parties involved.

Minister of Justice Wu Aiying said on Wednesday that the ministry would study the successful aspects of the community correction program, and create laws and regulations based on what they learn.