Reeducation without labor(2)

But some local authorities have already started to move. Four days after the central government made the announcement, Shanghai became the first provincial region in the country to announce that all laojiao prisoners had been released and the authority had begun work on changing the system.

At almost the same time, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Changsha in Hunan province and Qingdao in Shandong Province all announced that laojiao prisoners had been released.

While most offenders in reeducation camp had sentences of less than two years, it is expected that the majority of them will be released by the end of next year. It is also likely that all laojiao prisoners will receive an amnesty when the system is officially abolished at the end of this year, said experts.

Shanghai judicial authorities refused an interview request when the Global Times contacted them for detailed arrangements, saying that they would work under the unified arrangements of the central authority.

Personnel reshuffle

A source close to the Shanghai judicial authority who asked not to be named told the Global Times that among some 800 laojiao police officers in Shanghai, one-third will move to drug rehabilitation programs while the rest will move to community correction and juvenile offender education and correction facilities.

"Actually, most reeducation camps in China since 2007 had two signs: one was reeducation through labor camp and the other was drug rehabilitation, while they actually worked together. Therefore, it is easy for laojiao police officers to move to drug rehabilitation work and community correction work after receiving training," he said.

The source said officers from laojiao camps will receive training on the new arrangements at judicial schools later this month in Shanghai.

"But the situation is not always that easy for different provinces that had a relatively large number of laojiao officers. The abolition will be a challenge for them in terms of resettling employees," he said.

According to people.com.cn, the reeducation camps in Jiangsu Province released all laojiao prisoners by last weekend and announced that they had all been put in compulsory drug rehabilitation centers.

Official figures show that China currently has some 350 reeducation camps, and the people kept there are mainly convicted of theft, fraud, gambling, affray, and for repeat crimes such as prostitution and taking drugs.

Although there is not yet a detailed plan to clarify the transition period before and after the laojiao system is ended, there are several signs that the justice department has already launched serious reforms inside the system.

According to a press release by the Shanghai authorities on November 19, those previously held under the laojiao system will be dealt with under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law.

For minor criminal offenders, correction through specific education will be the main method instead of compulsory reeducation through labor, and this work will be done in collaboration with judicial officers and social correctional institutions.

"This means people previously sentenced under laojiao will be treated differently. Those whose acts do not constitute a crime will be punished by administrative penalties, and those whose acts constitute a minor part of a crime will be held criminally responsible strictly based on the law," Professor Miao Weiming from the criminal justice department at East China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.

New system

On the other hand, the central authority's announcement mentioned that the community correction system will be promoted, which some see as a possible replacement for laojiao in the future.

Currently, community correction is only applied to convicted criminals sentenced to lighter punishments such as public surveillance and probation, or convicts out on parole. Authorities say the purpose of community correction is to help those convicted of minor illegal acts return to society more easily.

Community correction is widely applied in many countries. China launched its pilot program in 2003 and implemented it nationwide in 2009.

Official figures show that some 1.66 million people have received community corrections while 1 million of them were released by the end of October. Only 0.2 percent repeated their crimes during the community correction period.

Zhao Dacheng, vice-minister of the Ministry of Justice, said at a news conference last Friday that some people had misunderstood community correction as being a new form of laojiao.

"Laojiao and community correction are very different in their legal bases, range of applications and executing procedure. Laojiao is for those who committed unlawful acts but were not convicted while community correction is for certain types of convicted criminals," Zhao said.

But some legal experts say it is necessary to perfect the community correction system to address possible problems that might emerge after the abolition of laojiao.

"A related law is needed as soon as possible to clarify the judicial procedure and the object of law enforcement as well as which authority should make decisions and be responsible to prevent the errors of laojiao," Chen Youxi, law professor at Renmin University of China, said.

"Laojiao was the last compulsory measure restricting citizen's freedom without a clear legal basis in China, and it should be no more," Chen said.