Jails without bars preventing crime
Source: Xinhua |
March 8, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LIKE his neighbors and friends, Chen Shuangxi (not his real name) dined with his family on the evening of Lantern Festival and enjoyed the first full moon of the Chinese lunar year.
He is serving a jail sentence, but is not behind bars.
Chen, who lives in Jinhua in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, was sentenced to three years with a reprieve of four and a half years in 2006 for his involvement in an illegal pyramid scheme.
He has been on a community correction program ever since.
"This festival is a very important occasion for family reunion. I am grateful that I could stay with my family like others," Chen said.
This year, a total of 180,000 convicts spent the Lantern Festival on February 28 at home rather than in jail, thanks to the community correction program.
China began trial runs of the program in 2003 in Beijing and Shanghai, then extended it to 27 provinces.
Having fulfilled their compulsory education and services, offenders on the community correction program can go to work and meet their friends just like ordinary people.
"For some convicts, a more humane correction environment can help change their attitude and lifestyle," said psychologist Fang Ting.
The country's efforts to improve out-of-prison correction programs illustrate the principle of "tempering justice with mercy," said Nan Ying, vice president of the Supreme People's Court.
The re-offending rate of those under community correction stayed below 0.2 percent to date, he said.
Another humanitarian move was the increasing use of the lethal injection to replace the traditional method of a bullet to the back of the head, which has been in use for decades and was the only lawful execution method until 1996.
Last year, northeastern China's Liaoning Province abolished execution by bullet.
Professor Sun Xiaoxia, of Zhejiang University Law School, said the increasing rate of non-incarceration sentences and lethal injections in executions not only showed a change in the concept of penalty but also demonstrated growing awareness of humanity.
He is serving a jail sentence, but is not behind bars.
Chen, who lives in Jinhua in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, was sentenced to three years with a reprieve of four and a half years in 2006 for his involvement in an illegal pyramid scheme.
He has been on a community correction program ever since.
"This festival is a very important occasion for family reunion. I am grateful that I could stay with my family like others," Chen said.
This year, a total of 180,000 convicts spent the Lantern Festival on February 28 at home rather than in jail, thanks to the community correction program.
China began trial runs of the program in 2003 in Beijing and Shanghai, then extended it to 27 provinces.
Having fulfilled their compulsory education and services, offenders on the community correction program can go to work and meet their friends just like ordinary people.
"For some convicts, a more humane correction environment can help change their attitude and lifestyle," said psychologist Fang Ting.
The country's efforts to improve out-of-prison correction programs illustrate the principle of "tempering justice with mercy," said Nan Ying, vice president of the Supreme People's Court.
The re-offending rate of those under community correction stayed below 0.2 percent to date, he said.
Another humanitarian move was the increasing use of the lethal injection to replace the traditional method of a bullet to the back of the head, which has been in use for decades and was the only lawful execution method until 1996.
Last year, northeastern China's Liaoning Province abolished execution by bullet.
Professor Sun Xiaoxia, of Zhejiang University Law School, said the increasing rate of non-incarceration sentences and lethal injections in executions not only showed a change in the concept of penalty but also demonstrated growing awareness of humanity.
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