Font Size: a A A

The Transition Of Prison System In Modern China-between Darkness And Brightness

Posted on:2007-02-20Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:S F WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360185454373Subject:Legal History
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
In China, the modern time that had experienced a great change is an exciting age, and the prison system itself is also an exciting topic. From the late Qing Dynasty, the traditional controlling method on the prisoners had transformed greatly due to a series of elements. As a result, the old prison system began to be modernized. But, how did the Chinese prison system realized its modern transition? By what methods did the transition rely on? What's the influence on contemporary Chinese prison system? Are there any inspirations or significance? The purpose of the dissertation is to give a rudimentary answer to those questions and to rethink the modern transition of prison system so that the recent prison system could be benefited from these analyses.The dissertation consists of several parts including preface, the following four chapters and a conclusion.The preface firstly demonstrates the purpose of the dissertation as mentioned above. Here, the title of the dissertation should be clearly interpreted."Modern China"refers to the period from late Qing Dynasty to the Northern government. It's the main period being researched, although the contents are not entirely constrained by it."The transition of modern system"means, in fact, the transition of the concept of prison defined by this article from the narrow sense to the narrowest sense. The phrase"between darkness and brightness"will show the evaluation of such a transition. As for the domestic research part, four aspects of the representative fruits on prison history are introduced. While, the foreign research part concerns two books: the contribution of"Surveilier et Punir"written by Michel Foucault; and the characteristics and drawbacks of"Crime, Punishment and Modern China Prison Reform, from 1895-1949"written by Frank Dikotter. Finally, the research methods and structure of the dissertation are demonstrated.Chapter one analyzed the modern transition of Chinese prison concept. The architectural structure of prison forms the basis and precondition of the spiritual reforms of the transition. By systematically introducing various pre-modern names of the Chinese prison, this chapter firstly focuses on the concept of"Yuan Tu", the representative of the Chinese traditional prison, which not only showed the idea of retribution but also the rehabilitation of the destroyed social order. That spirit was called"harmonization of the universe and the man". Since the idea of punishment came from the"universe", the architectural structure of prison must embody the figure of the universe, namely circle. Consequently, the"circle prison"stands for the idea of"harmonization of the universe and the man".With the gradual disappearance of such a concept in late Qing Dynasty, the transition of prison system took place at that time. Compared with the advanced western prison system, the Chinese one was lagged far behind. Both the Chinese emperor and his aides came to know that it was high time that the Chinese prison system be reformed. Under such guidance, new prisons were set up in several regions of China, such as Hu bei and Feng tian provinces besides the capital, Bei jing. The architectural structure of these prisons are widely described and deeply analyzed. Their legal concept was totally different from the traditional"circle prison", which embodied the following factors: a. effective surveillance; b. the emergence of prison architecture; c. the layered development of the construction. At the end of this part, the juvenile prison was showed due to its special categorized management.Chapter two is about the transition of the guard, namely the controller of the prison. First, it summarizes the pre-modern guard system, including the installation of the position, the relative requirement, and remuneration under the traditional criminal procedure that was characterized by a mixture of proceeding and punishment. Second, it introduced two great persons'ideas and practice in the modern transition, Shen jiaben's suggestion on the need of special guard and Zhang zhidong's relative operation. This chapter puts its emphasis on the meanings and practice of the installation, selection and salaries of the guards in the early days of the Republic of China. Finally, it reveals not only the general law of the modern transition of Chinese guards which embodied the close relationship among the setting up of the system, the competence of the guards and the effective control, but the successful points we should learn from and the unsuccessful factors we ought to consider as lessons.Chapter three shows the modern transition of prison management. Four aspects are analyzed here: the procedural justice for the prisoners from imprisonment to release; the rules and its implementation on nourishing and sanitation for the prisoners; the actual situation of labor and education system; and the last but not the least important, the transition of the idea on prisoner management evolved from the traditional showing mercy Confucianism to the modern educational and persuasive model.Chapter four examines the transition of punishment implementation by focusing on the system of parole. First, it sums up the evolution of parole, pointing out the fundamental change from"favor"to"right". Second, it introduces the background, process, and value of parole in modern Chinese legislation. After a detailed description of parole law in early days of Republic of China, it takes"prison archive of Feng tian"as an example to examine the parole law concretely. With the introduction of the archive's several characteristics, one idea become evident that in the transitional period, individual still couldn't be entirely liberated from the shackles of family to form the great change"from status to agreement". At that time, China was yet in a"society functioned by familiar people", so that"status"always played a very important role in such a society.The effect of the parole showed both the good and bad points of its modern practice, indicating that the people's legal concept remained at the retribution stage which was far from the idea of educational correction. Consequently, legislation maybe simple, but a real transition of legal concept and legal culture is another thing. The concept of punishment should, in fact, have a socio-psychological base. As a result, such a transition will take a long time and such a process painstaking.The last part of the dissertation analyzes deeply on the causes the modern transition on prison system and the rethinking concerned. With respect to the causes, it comments many theories, such as shock-response model, China-centered idea, and economy-determined concept, etc. After that, the causes come to be clear: they are the political requirement of the state, the philosophical basis, and the inevitable result of the prison development itself. As for the rethinking, it refers to the relationship between the modern transition on prison system and the following factors, including socialized implementation of punishment, the"rule by men", the scientific and technological development, the economic influence and the social requirement. These issues are the ones that contemporary China must take into serious consideration, and if possible, they also form the contributions of this dissertation.
Keywords/Search Tags:modern China, prison, transition, legal history
PDF Full Text Request
Related items