Flaws In Reeducation Through Labor System And Relevant Legislation Suggestions

Reeducation through labor is a kind of legal systems with Chinese characteristics. In its history of more than fifty years, reeducation through labor has successfully saved and reeducated a large number of people, who committed slight illegal or criminal offense, preventing and decreasing crimes and safeguarding the security of society. However due to the system flaws and various problems raised in the enforcement, reeducation through labor has deviated from the goal of the construction of socialist country by law. Administrative Penalty Law of the PRC and Legislation Law of the PRC coming into effect and "the state's respecting and protecting human rights" being explicitly written into the Constitutional Amendment of the PRC, the rightness and validity of reeducation through labor are greatly doubted. A comprehensive reform or legislation is inevitable.With some questions of reeducation through labor met in my working experience of Public Security Bureau, I consider the system from a rational angle. First of all, reeducation through labor could be reviewed in two important stages of its development, namely from 1955 up to the present. And it performs different social functions in different stages, which is a mandatory administrative penalty of political and administrative orders. Secondly, the existing system of reeducation through labor is in conflict with some legal principles such as "punishments are stipulated by laws", "all men are equal in the sight of law", and "punishments commensurate with crimes". Furthermore reeducation through labor system is lacks legitimacy, supervision and legal assistance. To solve those problems, the penman put forward the importance of reconstructing reeducation through labor system, which is the only way to respect and guarantee human rights, to limit the adjudication power of public security mechanism. Finally, in accordance with "the concept of ruling the country by law", the author raised a few legislative advices like prescribing the legal nature, the target, period of limitation, the approval procedure and executive proceedings. After being further reformed and perfected, reeducation through labor will definitely become an effective legal system.