BY LI QIN

   In China, there is a system known as "legal award," which is applied to people serving prison terms. A prisoner who gets such award may have his or her prison terms reduced or even have himself or herself released on parole. The legal award has to be passed by the people's court according to a strict judicial procedure after receiving the application from penalty execution organ or the prison authority. The principle for such award is that there must be good performance in repent and there is no longer threat to the society.

Panoramic view of the Wuxi Prison

  3,500 Awards a Year

  The Intermediate People's Court in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, which administers three prisons, passes legal awards to about 3,500 prison inmates every year. Over the past three years, nearly 10,000 prison inmates have had their prison terms reduced or have been released on parole. 

The Wuxi Prison has 462 police officers, managing 3,315 prisoners, mostly with heavy penalties. The prison has introduced the scoring system. If a prison inmate gets 60 points a month, he would stand a good chance to have about 5 months of prison term reduced. If a prison inmate gets citation for four times, he would have his prison terms reduced by one year and nine months.

  The decision on prison term reduction is open, according to Zhu Weimin, political commissar of the Wuxi Prison. It is open in requirements, percentage, procedures and results.

  The scores are given according to the performance in study, labor and observance of prison rules. Such scoring method is quite scientific and reasonable. It can basically reflect the performance of a prison inmate. Most of the prison inmates regard the practice as "transparent and fair".

Sun Jianqiang (left), presiding judge of the Wuxi Intermediate People's Court coming to Wuxi Prison to inquire about the rewarding and scoring system

  Complicated Procedures

  The Intermediate People's Court of Wuxi has to handle 200-300 cases for prison term reduction or release on parole every month. Each ruling has to go through the processes of application reading, discussion, public announcement and judgment. About 10% of the cases have to be heard in court, public hearing and forums.

  In order to do the work well, judges have to go down to the prisons to see for themselves. The 12 judges of the Intermediate Court spend a considerable time in prisons.

  On April 18, 2007, six judges from the court toured the living, labor and cultural areas of the prisons. They were very familiar with the term reduction cases, as each case has to go through one or two meetings with the judges before the final decision is taken.

One case has to be made public three times. The first public announcement is made before the case is submitted to the people's court. The second announcement is made to all the prison inmates and the general public after the people's court accepts the case. The third announcement is made after the court passes the ruling.

  Over the past three years, the Wuxi Intermediate Court has handled nearly 10,000 prison term reduction and release on parole cases and has received no complaints.

  The three prisons in Wuxi have a total of 23 buildings and each has a complaint letter box and a telephone. Prison inmates may complain anything including prison term reduction decisions. The letter box is open every week. It was reported that in the fourth quarter of 2006, the court received 13 complaint letters and seven complaint telephone calls, which had nothing to do with prison term reduction decisions. If there is any letter complaining about the scoring system, the prison would carry out investigations and submit the investigations results to the complainant or discipline inspection department of the prison. In handling each case, the judge has to hear the views of discipline inspection officer of the prison.

  For a prison term reduction case, a public hearing has to be held. One of such hearings in the Yixing Prison was held at a big classroom. About 200 people serving prison terms attended. The prison had submitted 246 cases for prison term reduction. But this hearing would handle only 10% or 26 cases according to rules. One participant said that it was his third time to attend a hearing. He said that the procedure was fair and the judges, procuratorates and prison wardens were very strict and serious.

  On September 26, 2006, the Wuxi Intermediate Court conferred legal awards to 227 prisoners, including 222 cases of prison term reduction ranging 7 months to two years, five cases for release on parole and 13 cases for reducing the remaining terms. On that day, a meeting was held in the Wuxi Prison, with an attendance of more than 1,000 prison inmates and scores of family members.

According to the Wuxi Prison authority, there are at least four groups of inmates getting prison term reduction or release on parole. The people's court does not only issue rulings but also cooperates with the prisons in carrying out education.

  A person who serves prison terms for corruption and bribery told the press that he had received prison term reduction because he did well in his study and passed the examination in the college court of law. He said that he was encouraged by the judge to do so. Another person who is scheduled to serve in the prison for 19 years received a one-year reduction. His wife told the press that it was the first time for his husband to receive the legal award. She said that her husband has seen hopes of his 19-year-prison life.

  Court Overburdened

  Over the past three years, the number of cases due to prison term reduction or release on parole has been increasing drastically and the complicated procedures have made the judges overloaded. They have to overwork in order to keep the hearing of the cases within the prescribed time limit. All these have made the judges overburdened.

  In addition, the recidivist rate of the three prisons has risen to 11% and many of them had received prison term reductions and other legal awards. This has made the judges perplexed.

  But the prison warden Sun of the Dingshan Prison has this to say: This is not necessarily associated with the legal award system, as the system can only say about the performance for a period of time but not the life trajectory of a person. There are many causes accounting for committing crimes again. It may be associated with the community education, living environment and re-employment. It cannot be attributed to reformation in prison or the relaxation in standards by the court.

  In addition, the application of release on parole is very low in Jiangsu, where the prison term reduction accounts for about 30% but the rate of release on parole is about 3%. The rate of release on parole in the three prisons in Wuxi in 2006 was less than 3%. This is a great waste of the resources of prison reformation.

  Improvements Urgent

  In this regard, the court and the prison have their own difficulty. In 2006, the Dingshan Prison sent a person for release on parole. But the locality refused to accept. The prison spent three days persuading the locality to receive the person. According to the three prisons in Wuxi, most of the people serving prison terms are very active in reformation and, according to the scoring standards, many have exceeded the standards for prison term reduction or release on parole.

The application of release on parole is a very sensitive issue due to passive attitude of the society and public opinion, said Pu Chunyu, associate professor of Jiangnan University. A misapplication is likely to arouse a big hullaballoo in the public. The people's courts and prisons are reluctant to bear the risks. That is why the courts and the prisons are very cautious and even passive with the application of release on parole.

  Since September 2006, the Wuxi Intermediate Court has carried out investigations aimed at improving the practice of prison term reduction and release on parole.

  The court holds that there should be improvements in the following aspects:

  -- To introduce a protest system. Judge Xu Zhonghua proposed that the criminal law and criminal procedure law should be amended to reallocate the power of prison term reduction and release on parole, making the procuratorate organ as a protester in such cases instead of as a supervisor. Specifically, for a case of prison term reduction or release on parole, first of all the prison should put forward its suggestions and submit it to the people's court, which will submit it to the procuratorate organ before hearing the case by a collegiate bench. In open hearing, the family members and representatives from the general public may be invited to hear the case in the court.

  --To improve the reasonable performance assessment system, that is, to set up a mechanism that combines the scoring system and the comprehensive assessment. The current scoring system is biased toward labor and the method of scoring is not totally reasonable for the old, the weak and the sick and minors, who should be the principal recipients of prison term reduction. So such scoring cannot reflect the real results of soul search. The scoring system should be focused on ideological reform so as to put the group of people mentioned above on the same starting line as other able-bodied people serving prison terms. Any one who conforms with the requirements for prison term reduction or release on parole can be granted as such. That will provide greater motivation for prison inmates in renewing their life.

  --To increase the number of cases for release on parole as required by the modern policies toward criminal cases. Law should be promulgated to lift the restrictions on people for release on parole. All people who have lost their labor power but are not qualified for treatment outside the prisons and pose no threat to the society with little possibility for them to commit crimes again should be released on parole. In addition, there should be persistence to individualization of criminal punishment. In the circumstances when violent crimes and "underworld crimes" have increased in the new period, the one-sided or absolute views are not favorable for reforming prison servers and will bring about passive impact on prison reform and security. So the provision in the Criminal Law that criminals of five violent and "underworld" crimes cannot be released on parole should be revised and in handling release on parole cases, there must be a guarantee mechanism to intensify the responsibilities of the guarantors by providing several responsibilities.

  --To optimize the allocation of regulation, supervision and administration of justice. Currently, the prisons in the whole country lack strength, thus seriously affecting the result of reformation. In addition, the sharp rise in the cases for term reduction or release on parole has made procuratorates unable to cope with and the people's court overburdened. The Wuxi People's Court deems it a pressing task to make up for the shortage of man power in regulation, supervision and law-enforcement and fully motivate the law-enforcement personnel from the height of safeguarding social stability and constructing a harmonious society, raise the sense of responsibility and work loyalty of procuratorates and law-enforcement personnel in prisons and relieve of their pressures. Their work should not be negated for a few reasonable mishaps and it is inappropriate to attribute the high recidivist rate to the prisons and courts. The reformation results and legal award system should be viewed objectively. 

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The author is a reporter of the People's Court News.