Reeducation without labor

When 27-year-old Ren Jianyu from China's southwest Chongqing Municipality received a call from the Global Times on November 15 to be told that the reeducation through labor system was to be officially abolished, the then victim of the system began to weep.

"I'm so excited. I feel that all the efforts from people like me who have been wronged have paid off," Ren said.

Ren was deprived of his freedom and put in the reeducation through labor, or laojiao program, for two years for "spreading negative information and inciting the subversion of State power" in 2011. His case drew nationwide attention, and Ren was released last November after he had served half his sentence.

The controversial correction system was officially slated for abolition in an announcement from the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in early November.

Previously, under the laojiao system, people could be detained for up to four years without an open trial. In the last few years, several highly controversial cases, including Ren's, prompted nationwide criticism and calls for the system to be scrapped.

Tang Hui is another person whose case became notorious throughout the nation. She was put in the program in Central China's Hunan province in August last year after petitioning for harsher punishments for the people convicted of raping her daughter and forcing her into prostitution. Tang's sentence was overturned eight days later.

"We hope Tang's case will be the last before laojiao is abolished," Xu Liping, Tang's lawyer said.

Zhang Jie, Tang's husband, told the Global Times that they were happy justice had been done and hoped no more victims would be wronged.

The abolition of laojiao is seen as a major part of the country's efforts to protect human rights.

Many scholars agree that the system was appropriate for a certain historical period in China, but is no longer suitable today as it lacks a legal basis and goes against the criminal law and the constitution. It had also become the source of a growing number of cases of abuse of power and illegal deprivation of citizens' rights in China.

Many believe that the end of the 56-year-old system may mark the start of judicial reform in China in the coming decade.

Timetable for closure

According to a press release from the Central Judicial Reform Office explaining the move on Monday, the abolition of the reeducation through labor system is a result of a drive to perfect the Chinese comprehensive legal system.

The announcement stated that most offenders who were given laojiao sentences in the past can now be given corresponding punishments based on related laws. For example, more than half of laojiao offenders were drug users, and according to the anti-drug law published in 2007, they can now be sent for compulsory drug rehabilitation.

The 2006 Public Security Administration Punishments Law gave details of penalties for unlawful acts deemed not serious enough for criminal punishment. The amendment to the criminal law in recent years also added burglary, carrying weapons, theft, pick pocketing, extortion and other crimes that directly violated citizens' legitimate rights and interests as criminal acts.

As a result, in recent years, the number of people put through reeducation through labor decreased while the sentences were also shortened. In fact, most reeducation camps stopped accepting new cases in March after Meng Jianzhu, chief of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, announced that there were plans to abolish laojiao by the end of the year in a government meeting in January.

However, although the decision was officially stated in a top document by the authorities, the laojiao program will not be formally abolished until the top legislature, the National People's Congress, amends the law, which is expected to take place late this month.