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Community Corrections in China: Development and Challenges

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The Prison Journal

Published online on

Abstract

China has long utilized community-based corrections for offenders. Before 2003, however, the practice lacked formalization and professionalization. Since 2003, prison overcrowding, a need for cost-effectiveness, and a move toward a more civilized method of reforming offenders have sped up China’s use of community corrections. Based on a literature review of Chinese language publications and face-to-face interviews with local community corrections leaders and officers in Hubei, China, this is an exploratory study of community corrections in mainland China. We briefly examine the practice’s developmental history and five types of sanctions—public surveillance, probation, parole, temporary execution of a sentence outside a confinement facility, and deprivation of political rights. China’s community corrections’ characteristics and implementation are investigated. Finally, the article discusses problems and challenges to China’s community corrections system.