| In the current judicial practice of China, the administrative departments which shoulder the pre-trial pending custody are mainly detention houses at different levels as the internal administrative units of public security organs. Meanwhile, the public security organs are responsible for most of criminal investigation duties and tasks in China. This certainly makes the job duties of the detention houses dissimilated in the judicial practice and they are even reduced as useful tools in assisting the criminal investigation. It is common that the extended custody, the frequent prison bully and the unnatural death of detainees often happen. CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping puts forward the ambitious goal:the masses can experience the equity and justice in every judiciary case with the judicial credibility improved so that the judiciary organs can better satisfy the new requirements the masses raise for the judicial work in the new situation. To better respond to this goal, it is required that the corresponding reform should be conducted in the current job duties and the working mechanism of the detention houses.According to the pertinent requirements in the criminal procedure law, the detention house is responsible for the pre-trial custody of unconvicted criminals and the co-execution of detaining the convicted prisoners who are not sent to prisons for their term of imprisonment is less than three months. However, administered by the public security organ of the criminal investigation department, the detention houses are regarded and used as "criminal information library" and "important battlefields to fight crimes" to serve their criminal investigation and clear up cases. Therefore, a series of practical problems come up such as extorting confessions by torture, extended custody and prison bully etc. In recent years, the incidents are repeatedly exposed where detainees suffer from the unnatural death. Many factors cause the problem. In addition to the vague positioning of job duties and the affiliation of the detention houses to the public security organs, the criminal justice concept of "guilty presumption" is still the main trend. Moreover, many other subjective and objective factors give rise to these problems including the incomplete laws and regulations relevant to the pending custody, the ineffective internal management of the detention house, the lack of multi-channels for external supervision, the unsuitable rights relief means of detainees and other external pressure.To solve various problems existent in the current judicial practice, the functions of the detention houses should be repositioned. It should clearly identified that the functions of detention houses cover the normal operation of the criminal procedures, the protection of detainees’ legitimate rights from infringement and the effective implementation of defense rights. Thus, the relationship between the detention house and the criminal investigation departments should be clarified and its administrative affiliation, personnel management, financial guarantee and professional guidance are handed over together to the relatively nonaligned administrative organization of justice for management. In addition, some reforms should be also conducted in the nonaligned judicial environment such as keeping popularizing the law education to help the public set up the legal principles of "presumption of innocence" and rationally reconstructing the relevant laws and regulations and the operation mechanisms which involve the detention house and pending custody. |
