Discussion Paper by the Delegation of the People’s Republic of China at the 22nd APCCA on Agenda Item 4:
The reception and classification of prisoners are the two important links in the Chinese prison system. The reception is the premise for the classification of prisoners, and the classification is a further step for the reform of the prisoners. These two links supplement each other, jointly serving the rehabilitation of the prisoners.
In China, the reception means that the prisons, in accordance with the legal procedure, receive those criminals that have been sentenced by the court to fixed-term imprisonment, life-time imprisonment or death penalty with two years’ reprieve and meet the legal requirements for putting under custody. The so-called legal requirements for putting under custody include, for example, that, the judgement of the court must be a final one; the legal documents for the delivery of the criminal to the prison must be complete; the criminal must not be those that have serious disease and need to have medical treatment on bail; the criminals must not be those that are pregnant and are breast-feeding her baby, etc.. The Chinese reception system is intended to reflect the spirits of the rule of law and the respect and protection of the human rights of the criminals. The reception is the beginning of the execution of the punishment of the criminal and the starting point of the reform of the criminals, and is therefore of great significance in the enforcement of the criminal penalty.
At the phase of reception, the Chinese prisons will mainly do the following jobs:
1. The examination of the legal documents for reception. In China, to send criminals for reception in a prison, the delivering organ must submit to the prison the following legal documents: the copy of the bill of charge, the judgement of the court, the execution notification form of the court and the registration form for the conclusion of a case of the court. These legal documents are the ground for the prison’s reception of criminals. Without having received these documents, the prison shall not receive criminals.
The prison shall carry out strict examination of the legal documents submitted by the court. If finding that the documents are not complete or bear mistakes, the competent court should supplement new documents or make corrections. With regard to a case that there is a risk that the person concerned may be wrongly received, the prison may refuse to receive the person concerned. This reflects the seriousness of the Chinese system for criminal penalty enforcement.
2. The medical examination. In China, it is imperative that the prison should carry out medical examination of the criminal to be received. The examination may, on the one hand, serve to prevent those that do not meet the legal requirements for reception from being received, and, on the other hand, enable the prison to have a general knowledge about the health status of the criminal to be received, which is very helpful for the prison to make proper arrangements for the criminal in terms of life, study and labor during his later service. The information acquired herewith can also help to provide ground for the classification-based reform program.
3. Examination of the body and physical articles of the criminal to be received. For the sake of safeguarding the normal supervisory and reformative order in the prison, and ensuring the security of the prison and the person concerned, when receiving the criminal, the prison must carry out strict examination over the body and the articles of the criminal to be received. Articles that may be unnecessary may be kept by the prison for the criminal or, with the agreement of the criminal, may be returned to criminal’s family members. Contrabands must be confiscated for the sake of preventing, for example, suicide, escape, doing harm, destruction or riot, etc.
4. Psychological examination and making a file for the criminal received. In order to have a further knowledge about the criminal so as to carry out better education and reform of the criminal, in China, the prison policemen will have talks with the received criminals one by one. And then on the basis of the talk, the prison policemen will fill in the prisoners’ reception registration form, so as to make a file for the prisoner. In order to improve the psychological traits of the prisoners, many prisons, upon the reception of the criminal, will have a psychological examination of the criminal so as to establish a psychological file for the prisoner. The results of the examination are usually the basis for later corresponding rehabilitation programs.
5. Induction education. Upon reception of the prisoners, the prison will arrange some time to give the newly-received prisoners education in terms of law, the future and conduct rules in the prison, etc. The education is oriented to give instructions or advice to the newly-received prisoners for them to know about the prison life, to relieve the mental burden and to be adapted to the prison environment as soon as possible, and then to reform themselves in a process of hope.
In accordance with the law and the need of effective reform of the prisoners, the Chinese prisons follow a system of classification of the prisoners. The system includes classified incarceration, classified management and classified education.
1. Classified incarceration. Article 39 of the Chinese Prison Law stipulates that “the prison shall conduct separated incarceration and management of the adult male prisoners and women prisoners, and juvenile offenders. The reform program for the juvenile offenders and the program for the women prisoners shall take into consideration their physical and psychological characteristics. The prison shall, based on the category of crime, the type of penalty, the service term and the performance of the prisoners, conduct classified incarceration of the prisoners, and adopt different manners for their management”. This is the Chinese legal provision for the classified incarceration of the prisoners. In practice, we usually put the adult male criminals to the male prisoners, adult female criminals to women prisons, and juvenile offenders to juvenile reformatories. When a juvenile prisoner has reached 18, if his remaining service term is still more than two years, we will transfer him to a prison for adult criminals. In juvenile reformatories, the incarcerations of boys prisoners and girls prisoners are strictly separated. Besides, we also classified the prisoners into property-related criminals, sex-related criminals, violent criminals and other types of criminals, such as persistent offenders and first offenders, etc. These different types of prisoners are incarcerated in different sections of the prison. The classified incarceration of criminals is the premise for classified management and education of the prisoners. It is helpful for preventing induced crimes among the same category of offenders, and helpful for the application of corresponding correctional programs. So it is of meaning for promotion of the efficacy of reform of the prisoners.
2. Classified Management. The classified management means that the prison, on the basis of the classified incarceration of the prisoners, and according to the crime nature, means, risk and service performance of the different types of criminals (such as property-related criminals, sex-related criminals, violent criminals and negligent criminals), sets different treatment standards for different prisoners. The prison may adopt different discipline and correctional measures so as to ensure effective punishment and rehabilitation of the prisoners.
The core content of the classified management is the differentiated treatment. According to the different cases of the prisoners, the Chinese prisons generally set three different treatment standards for prisoners, namely, hard management, moderate management and lenient management. According to the result of the quantitative assessment of the prisoner’s performance, with regard to a certain prisoner, the above-mentioned three standards of treatment may be interchangeable. Different groups of prisoners may be given different treatments in terms of discipline, supervision, family visit, correspondence, receiving of material articles and limits of activities, etc. For example, for those prisoners that are put under hard management, these prisoners shall be directly managed by the prison policemen. The supervision shall be in place day and night. But for those being given lenient treatment, the prisoners may, to some degree, conduct self-management.
The classified management is an important component part of classified reform of prisoners. It is a manifestation of the tendency of individualization of the penalty enforcement in China and the Chinese policy of differentiated treatment to different criminals. This approach is beneficial for mobilizing the criminals’ incentive and initiatives for reform, and thus ensuring the efficacy of the prison work.
3. Classified education.
The Chinese prisons, while practicing strict management of the prisoners, attaches great importance to the role of education in the reform of prisoners. The classified education is an important aspect of the work of education and reform of the prisoners. It is a further step made on the basis of the classified incarceration and classified management. In practice, prisoners are grouped as property-related criminals, sex-related criminals, violent criminals and other types. Classes are established by these groups, and are offered with corresponding courses. In general, the courses cover education in terms of law, moral, current affairs, policy, future development and technical skills, etc. Such corresponding education helps the prisoners to show repentance and to be determined to mend their old wrong ways, and resettle into the community as a law-abiding citizen.