TheEconomistNovember 2nd 2019 371A
few weeksago, people across China
were summoned to government of-
fices. There they were given a piece of paper
to sign. It contained several pledges, in-
cluding not to take part in political prot-
ests, not to leave their districts and to keep
their mobile phones switched on day and
night with gpsenabled. For good measure
they were asked to affix their thumbprints.
Those breaking their promises could be
sure of the risk: imprisonment.
The “commitments to self-discipline”,
as the documents were titled, were part of a
nationwide ratcheting-up of security in
preparation for official celebrations of 70
years of Communist rule on October 1st. Yet
those who agreed to the stipulations had
reason to feel relieved. At least they were
not in prison already. They were convicts,
but serving their sentences at home.
Justice in China is often harsh. Last year
99% of criminal defendants were found
guilty. Only about 800 people were acquit-
ted. China has been reducing the number
of capital offences, but it is still believed to
execute thousands of people every year,
more than the rest of the world combined.
In the past two or three years the far west-
ern province of Xinjiang has built a vast
new gulag where it has interned without
trial 1m or more people, mostly ethnic Ui-
ghurs, often simply for being devout Mus-
lims. The region is home to less than 2% of
China’s people, but last year hosted one-
fifth of its criminal prosecutions.
For some, however, the chance of avoid-
ing jail time has been growing. It used to be
that almost all convicted criminals were
sent to prison. Minor offenders, such as
prostitutes and their clients, were sent to
“re-education through labour” camps
without even seeing a judge. But in recent
years the camps have been abolished and
courts have begun experimenting with
“correction in the community” sentences
instead of locking up people.
Since these pilots began in 2003, more
than 4.3m offenders have served their timeoutside a cell. Today, about 700,000 are do-
ing so. In some big cities, around 60% of
criminal sentences do not involve jail. In-
stead, convicts usually live at home and,
for at least eight hours a month, perform
unpaid labour such as cleaning streets or
clearing streams. Often they also have to at-
tend at least eight hours monthly of in-
struction on how to be good citizens.
For many of those who receive such
sentences, the relief must be immense.
Torture and other forms of abuse are com-
mon in prisons. There is little sign that
conditions are improving. Early this cen-
tury, however, officials began to wonder
whether, for less serious crimes, incarcera-
tion was effective. Some noted that, despite
the large numbers being locked up, crime
rates were still increasing. So community
service was tried out in a few regions. In
2005 the government adopted a new policy
called “balancing leniency and severity”.
This meant continuing to impose long jail
sentences on people such as violent crimi-
nals, corrupt officials and those the Com-
munist Party views as politically danger-
ous, while punishing petty offenders more
lightly. In 2009 the community-correc-
tions system was rolled out nationwide.
Participants are mainly serving sus-
pended prison sentences of three years or
less. They need permission to leave their
home districts and are banned from travel
abroad. Some are electronically tagged. In
addition to their labour duty and study ses-
sions, they have to make contact at least
weekly by telephone with a local commu-Penal reform
A bigger cage
BEIJING
Justice in China is harsh. But courts are sending some convicts home
China
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