The Study On The Annulment Of Detention Education

Prostitutes have a history of a few thousand years in our country, which can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty, and it prevailed especially during the Republican period. Since the 1980’s, along with strengthing of reform and opening-up policy in our country, the gradual development of market economy, and the increasing population flow, prostitution which had been banned for more than a decade in China reappeared. In order to crack down on the prostitution activities strictly, "The Decision on Forbidding Prostitution" was promulgated by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress in September 1991 and "The detention education measure of prostitution personnel" was issued by the state council in September 1993. The above regulations mentioned the application of detention education measure to prostitutes and wenchers, and thus established legal system of detention education in China.Detention education measure in our country is one of the legal means of governing the activities of prostitution. Over the years, the detention education measure has played a vital role in many aspects, for instance, stopping the unlawful behavior of prostitution; preventing and treating venereal disease, AIDS and other diseases; maintaining social order and social stability.As the coming of world’s information age, politics, economy and culture of various countries influence each other, and the democracy and freedom is common aspiration for people all over the world. Internationally, the movement of human rights protection rised one after another, and the countries all over the world have abolished the laws and regulations which violate people’s rights and freedom to keep up with the trend of the human rights movement. In this environment, in recent years, China has abolished the laws and regulations like custody and repatriation, sheltering for investigation and re-education through labor, which are similiar to the detention education measure. In addition to the different applicable objects between the detention education and the reeducation through labor, the qualities, applicable procedures and ways of execution are similar between these two. Therefore, the detention education and the reeducation through labor have the similar problems and drawbacks. Professor Ruan Qilin sharply pointed out, "The reasons why the reeducation through labor should be abolished can be applied to the detention education system." Several problems also exist in the detention education, for example, it implements the criminal penalty in the name of administrative compulsory punishment; it contradicts with the Constitution and other laws in China; the design of detention education system is not reasonable; detention education violates the requirements of entity notarization; its management system deficiency contribute to limited effect and so forth.In 2014 the well-known young actor Charles Huang was taken due to prostitution, and arrested by Beijing police for administrative attachment 15 days. After that he went through the detention education for half a year.After the media exposure of this case, it has recently become the social hot spot, which led to a wide attention and discussion of the society on the detention education system.Detention education system mainly targets the prostitution personnel, which is far away from public view for an extended period. Because of Charles Huang’s identity as a famous actor, detention education system has moved into the public sight. Detention education is a criminal penalty outside of the criminal law, which actually has the nature of the administrative compulsory measures.At present it still exists and has the force of law in our country. There is a defect in it when it is similar to the system of reeducation through labor.In the legislative reality, detention education is legitimate in form as a compulsory administrative measure, but in essence, it contradicts with the legal progress trend and human rights protection requirements, showing a lack of legitimacy.And detention education system has defects in the power entity setting and operation, as well as in power procedure settings.It manifests crisis of legitimacy, rationality and legitimacy on its legislative and judicial aspects.According to article from the detention education measures for prostitution personnel, it reads:" prostitution personnel can be punished in accordance with article sixty-six from the public security administration punishment law of the People’s Republic of China. And the detention education can be determined by the police, if the person doesn’t reach the requirement of reeducation through labor.After the annulment of reeducation through labor, the detention education, which is on the basis of the "not enough for reeducation through labor" has lost the reference standard, and in the face of the applicable problem.Under current conditions, all the prostitution personnel must be in accordance with article 7 from the detention education measures for prostitution personnel. But it is obviously unreasonable if the detention education is implemented according to these regulations.Therefore, the best and the simplest way is to abolish the detention education so as to avoid the dilemma in the application of law. Therefore, detention education should be considered to be abolished.There exist two kinds of views on how to abrogate the detention education in theory. The first one is to follow the steps of reeducation through labor, which was stopping practice first, then abolishing it in policy, and finally abolishing it in law.The other one is to abolish it directly and thoroughly. Based on the obvious difference between the detention education and the reeducation-through-labor, detention education itself is a kind of sanction more detached from the public attention. The role of it is not so significant in social security prevention and control system,and its applicable object is very limited to the prostitution personnel.At present, the objective conditions for abolishing the detention education has been basically fostered and broad consensus has been reached.Therefore, following the steps of abolishing the reeducation through labor is not necessary to abolishment of detention education. Thus, the abolishment can be direct and thorough, and the standing committee of the National People’s Congress can straightly lay down laws or regulations to abolish the detention education. Thus, the paper support the one-step method of abolishing the detention education.