The system of community-based correction has been further improved. The amended Criminal Procedure Law adopted in 2012 stipulated that those criminals sentenced to public surveillance, probationary suspension, parole and serving terms outside of jail temporarily, should undergo community-based correction according to law, and be subject to the administration of community correctional institutions. According to the provisions of the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, the Ministry of Justice worked with other related departments in jointly laying down Measures for the Implementation of Community Correction, and made comprehensive stipulations on the delivery, execution and legal supervision of community correction. Efforts were made to strengthen education and management and effectively raise the quality of community correction. To help those serving sentences adapt to society, the government formulated, improved and fulfilled earnestly the assistance policy, and coordinated with others to find solutions to the problems concerning the employment, schooling, subsistence allowances, provisional aid and social security, which has helped create conditions for those serving sentences to feel reassured in receiving community correction and assimilate back into society. By the end of 2015, China had established 1,339 community-based correction centers at the county (district) level, which received cumulatively 2.702 million people serving sentences, and released cumulatively 2.004 million such people. There were 698,000 people serving sentences on the roster to receive community correction, and the rate of recidivism for people receiving community correction has remained at a relatively low level of 0.2 percent.

 

In December 2012, the NPC Standing Committee adopted a decision to abolish laws and regulations on reeducation through labor.

 

In August 2015, the NPC Standing Committee decided to grant amnesty to four categories of prisoners. By the end of 2015, official pardons had been given to 31,527 prisoners according to law.

 

(2) Rights of detainees

 

Supervision over detention has been strengthened. For those detainees who are sick or injured or in a situation eligible for release on bail or residential surveillance and unsuitable for continued detention according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, public security organs will change compulsory measures according to law. Between 2012 and 2015, procuratorial institutions across the country proposed release or changing compulsory measures for 83,341 people who were involved in cases unnecessary for detention, and case-handling organs accepted such proposals for 77,591 detainees, with the adoption rate standing at 93.1 percent. Supervision over the term of criminal detention was intensified in a comprehensive way. Between 2012 and 2015, 1,974 detainees were found to be in extended custody, calls for correction were then made about 1,967 detainees, and the situations of 1,939 detainees have been corrected so far.