On The Reform Of The Prison In The Late-Qing

Prison Reform in the End of Qing Dynasty has a panoramic study to the topic"prison reform"of the Qing dynasty,which is based on the original materials by the way of history,law,sociology and so forth.This is a newly topic with few scholars involved but meaningful to the law system of modern China.The book has five chapters and their brief content as follow:The"Introduction"is a direction to the topic selecting,research approaches,research materials,and research objects.The first chapter"Conditions Before the Prison Reform"describes the background of reformed objects.Prison reform of Qing dynasty has to inherit the one of Ming dynasty.So the prison system of Qing dynasty is of the essentiality as feudal executive mechanism,and it is only used for detaining the criminals and witness.Prison system of this period comparably keeps simple.The second chapter"Motivation of the Prison Reform"has analyzed some causes of the prison reform.The prison reform actually is a response to the New Regime and the preparatory constitutionalism under the great pressure Qing government faced.And the western imperial countries'raiding our consular jurisdiction adds huge pressure to the government,which will be a strong motive to the prison reform.Besides,the development of social conditions and the transformation of social concepts should drive the reform of prison more or less. In other words,the prison reform emerges because of pressure and demand.The next chapter"the Initial Steps and the Features of Modern Prison Reform",has given a picture of several reform ideas on prison at the end of Qing dynasty.From the blog of those diplomatic ambassadors,we can see that they devoutly agree with and adore the western prison system,and right at this moment they hit upon the idea to reforming Chinese prison system.Also,there emerge some ideas and practice of prison executive,which has prepared for the future prison reform in China.In 1901,the governor general of Liangjiang Liu Kunyi and Hunan governor general Zhang Zhidong hand in the famous"reform detail rules"after declaring the new regime,which marks the beginning of prison reform.Later in 1902,the inspector of Shanxi,Zhao Erxun performs the memorandum advising to set prison for criminals doing physical training and handicraft works,which open a new world to prison reform.After that,though China has not formed the prison system as its western counterpart,it yet has the, features alike that.One is,the executive manner has been more humanism,the other is criminals have received more positive correction and education.Although the prison reform has been influenced by western mainly,the role of Chinese intellectuals is not just playing as"knowledge-porter".They imitate the western system based on profound consideration and reasonable selection. Only if they know well of prison system of both parts,they ponder deeply with our own traditions and find a way of good mix for the prison reform,which should be received under the temporal situation.The fourth chapter"Practice of the Prison Reform"includes two parts.The former part"Preparations of the Prison Reform"tells us that,firstly,contains to reform punishment system and official system,secondly,to learn from foreign advanced prison system,especially to inspect the Japanese prison system,which accumulates some experience to improve our own reform.Moreover,in order to attend the 8^thworld prison conference,Qing government carefully selects some officers who are the professors of law theory from and send them there;thereby they could learn much from the foreign prison systems directly.The second part"the Actual Operation of the Prison Reform"proves that prison reform has born some fruits.Beside to achievements of clearing the rules and rectifying the management of prison,Zhao Erxun,the Shanxi inspector, performs the memorandum advising to set prison for criminals doing physical training and handicraft works,which sets the first step in the reform.Later along with the declaration of preparatory constitutionalism,the deficiency of equipments,management,inner structure of prison unavoidably calls out the detention house and model prison.So as to cultivate the professionals of the prison,Qing government has ever built the prison law college and some prison schools.Furthermore,Qing government has enacted the first law of prison in China -- the Draft Plan of Great Qing Prison Law with the help of a Japanese prison expert.The last chapter"History Review"concerns about the historical limitation of this prison reform and its historic influence.Different to other reviews,though the author has pointed some historical limitation of the reform,also pointed the positive effects of it in a proper angle.In respect of idea reform,the prison reform brings about the modern prison system of China,which primarily realizes the transformation from the punishment of cruel torment to reshaping with education and edification.In respect of prison regime,the prison reform in the end of Qing dynasty has been the pioneer of the whole prison history,which also has been followed by the later government.No matter the criminal handicraft house and model prison,or the professionals of prison management,all have been put in an important position. Even the The Draft Plan of Great Qing Prison Law is used as the original version of Prison Rules of the Republic of China.So far,the prison reform continues to enlighten as that the way advocated in prison"treat different criminals by their different features"should be paid with close attention,which will be subservient to realize the goal of prison education to return to society.