Pilot provinces, regions and municipalities have accumulatively absorbed 348,000 offenders for community correction.
BEIJING, August 26 – The correspondents learnt from the Ministry of Justice that by far, pilot projects of community correction have been carried out in 27 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the jurisdiction of the central government, 208 prefectures and prefectural-level cities, and 1309 counties, county-level cities and districts. Accumulatively, 348,000 offenders serving community correction orders have been covered by these pilot projects, among whom 164,000 have already served their terms and been released, while the remaining 184,000 are still under supervision.
These pilot projects are carried out as a part of the institutional reform of penalty execution to implement China’s criminal policy of tempering justice with mercy. In July 2003, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued the Notice on Carrying out Pilot Projects of Community Correction, in which the nature, scope of application, tasks, and responsibilities of departments and requirements of community correction were provided for. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Suzhou, Zhejiang and Shandong were designated as the pilot provinces and municipalities and the pilot projects of community correction were officially launched.
In the beginning of the year 2005, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued The Notice on the Extension of the Scope of Pilot Projects of Community Correction, in which Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou were designated as the second batch of pilot provinces and municipalities. Later, the nine non-pilot provinces of Jilin, Yunnan, Shanxi, Liaoning, Henan, Fujian, Jiangxi, Ningxia and Qinghai also carried out trial projects under the leadership of their local party committees and governments.
Over the years, following the principle of “proactive yet prudent, standardized and consistent with the law, coordinated and quality oriented”, the pilot projects of community correction have made several explorations, accumulated rich experiences and achieved fruitful results. With the establishment of the leadership system and working mechanism, the pilot projects developed in an orderly manner. Different educational and correctional measures have been adopted to enhance the quality of education and reform of the offenders; Relative rules have been stipulated to carry out the pilot projects according to laws; Institutional problems and expenditure shortage are being settled to guarantee the smooth operation of pilot projects.
With multi practices and explorations, the pilot projects have achieved sound legal and social effects. In these projects, the majority of the offenders accepted the correction, enhanced their awareness to abide by law and strengthened their sense of social responsibility. The recidivism rate among these offenders has been controlled at a relatively low level, and the phenomena of absence of control and escape of control dropped by a large margin.
By consolidating social resources and strengths for the execution of penalties outside the prisons, community correction is a new exploration to supervise and educate offenders in an open environment and has enriched the modes of non-custodial penalty enforcement. China’s non-custodial penalty enforcement system has been improved and its positive role in reforming the offenders has been brought into better play. (By correspondents Wang Doudou and Yu Nayang)
(Source of the Chinese Article: www.legalinfo.gov.cn)
