Rebalancing the scales of justice to deal with those who commit minor crimes
Print Edition
In a moment of blind rage, Xie Rong slipped a bracelet from a gold store counter up her sleeve when the shop assistant wasn’t looking.
The 68-year-old woman in the city of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, later explained that she went into the shop intending to exchange a 29-gram bracelet she bought from the same store two years ago for a new one. She was told her bracelet weighed only 21 grams and she would have to pay an additional 1,000 yuan (US$140) to get a replacement. She felt cheated and angry.
Xie was arrested the next day when police identified her through surveillance camera footage. The stolen bracelet, still bearing its sales tags, was retrieved. She confessed to the theft.
The bracelet’s value at 20,000 yuan meant that Xie faced a maximum prison sentence of three years, but Xuanwu District People’s Procuratorate of Nanjing was reluctant to impose jail time.
For one thing, Xie was a respected doctor with a clean record. Before stealing the bracelet, she had been depressed for some time after her husband’s bladder-cancer diagnosis. The court eventually sentenced Xie to 180 hours of community service.
At a recent criminal defense forum in Beijing, experts noted that the proportion of violent felonies in China has continued to decline over the years, while the proportion of less serious crimes and the rate of lenient sentencing have steadily increased.
“For the past two decades, the proportion of misdemeanor cases that resulted in imprisonment of three years or less has risen from about 50 percent to 83 percent,” said Fan Chongyi, honorary president of China University of Political Science and Law. “We need to reclassify some of those cases and adopt different measures, case by case, instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach.”
This year, new “one-stop” misdemeanor management centers have been established around the country, including the Yangtze River Delta region, the city of Chongqing and Jilin Province.
The centers review and classify cases to decide which should go to court and which should not. In the latter cases, offenders will be required to perform community service instead of going to jail.
This “community corrections” approach relies on the reform efforts of specialized agencies, assisted by social groups, organizations and volunteers, to help offenders correct unlawful behavior.
Although widely adopted in developed countries, this model was not fully implemented in China until the Community Corrections Law was officially enacted in 2019.
Legal experts said such an approach helps alleviate the government financial burden of incarcerating lawbreakers and gives offenders a chance to prevent a single mistake from ruining their entire life prospects.
“However, it should be noted that community corrections is not applicable to all misdemeanors,” said Zhu Xiahua, a lawyer with the Shanghai Walson Law Firm. “Usually, the offenders we are talking about here are involved in occasional theft, minor dangerous driving offenses, provocation and affray, or something along those levels.”
There are drawbacks to such enlightened justice. Some offenders may exploit the flexibility of community corrections to avoid harsher prison sentences, and community correction institutions or staff may fail to implement adequate and effective supervision.
Last month a man surnamed Yu was sent to jail after he failed to show up at a correction center.
According to Xuhui District People’s Court, the man was sentenced last year to 14 months of community service for obstruction of justice. He was supposed to carry out the sentence in his hometown, but never showed up. After a warning and still no response, Yu was seized and sent to jail.
“Legislators have become aware of such cases,” said Zhu. “If community corrections institutions find that offenders are uncooperative, they can use electronic devices to locate them and require them to finish their sentences.”
Doctor Xie performed her community service at an elderly care home, where she helped residents with medication and health exercises. She also offered to give free reproductive counselling to young couples.
After she completed her community service, she attended a hearing with procurators, lawyers and judges to assess her situation and allow her to go free.
“We hope that the public will understand why she was not prosecuted and why the system of community corrections can be useful,” said Xu Jia, an official with Xuanwu District People’s Procuratorate.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
