On The Prison Improvement In The Late Qing Dynasty

The modem period of China began from 1840, symbolized by the eruption of the Opium War. Closed China was compelled to be half colonial, and the political power of Qing Dynasty had to be transformed from the complete feudal into the half colonial. The traditional prison system had to be reformed, following the western pattem. It was the milestone in the Chinese legal history. Therefore it is-necessary to study the prison system of Qing Dynasty to form the objective understanding to the transformation from the feudal to the capital.This paper has four parts.In the first part, various reasons are listed on the prison improvement in the later Qing Dynasty. From the domestic aspect, the influence of decayed prison system of the early Qing Dynasty, the demand of the special group and the bourgeois revolution movement were the first three reasons. In the prison system even more mature process, the decayed factor in the prison management was unceasingly multiplying. Then the prison officials took bribes and perverted justice, the prison management continued to use the torture, and the imperial clan aristocrat enjoyed the privilege. All of these caused the fall of the feudal prison system which had been applied for several millenniums. At the same time, the national bourgeoisie stood up as a new social strength and had the intense request for the prison improvement. The bourgeois revolution movement and the constitutionalism movement both forced the Qing government to form the mutual recognition of prison improvement.From the external aspect, there also existed Some reasons, mainly including the need of the western big powers to seize the Chinese judicature privilege, the input of the westem law culture, influence of westem prison improvement and the pressure of the international society. After the Opium War, some of the big westem countries had obtained the consular jurisdiction and set up various courts in China, and the prisons kept appearing one after another within the boundaries of China. The Chinese bourgeoisie reformists strongly requested the transformation of the traditional prison system. Chinese people also gradually realized some of the advantagesof the western prison system, so they advocated the prison improvement. The severe Qing government's penalty and the dark prison politics were attacked by the international society and became the excuse of the westerners to seize the judicial privilege in China. Therefore, the Qing government had to carry on the prison improvement for changing the low judicature status in international society.In the second part, the idea of the prison improvement is illustrated, especially the idea of the bourgeoisie reformists Zhang Zhidong and Shen Jiaben. The bourgeoisie reformists had found the direction of the transformation of the Chinese prison management through observing the operation of the western prisons. The administration of the prison system became the focus of the bourgeoisie reformists. The key point Of the reformation is to improve criminal's survival environment and to train the prisoners some crafts. The ideas of Zhang Zhidong and Shen Jiaben, such as establishing the new style prison, training the prison officials, improving the criminal treatment and strengthening the education of prisoners, are further discussed.In the third part, some of the attempts on the prison improvement are mainly talked about. Following the western pattern, the Qing government had made many attempts in improving management of the prison. First, many criminal laws and regulations were revised and formulated. Next, the prison official's training was paid much attention to. Without the qualified prison officials, the prison system could not be put into good use. Finally, the Qing government also established many criminal reformatories and the new style prisons for improving criminal's living conditions in order to reform and better organize the prisoners.The fourth part is the comment on the prison improvement. The political idea, the measures taken and the failure reasons are mentioned. In introducing the western prison system into the Chinese frame, two kinds of values were contradicted and made the prison improvement finally an illusion. The first code draft was formulated, the status of the prison law as independent was established, a group of new managerial talents were trained and the Chinese modern prisons came into being. The Qing prison improvement was a failure because most of prisons had not been improved. The main reasons for failure were such as lacking the most basic social and political conditions, the insufficient funds, different law regulations of various provinces, the social turbulence as well as the ineffective measures.The prison improvement in the later Qing Dynasty played the extremely important role in the process of carrying on the new policy. It had the progressive significance to the later Chinese legislation and the judicial practice.