The Dui Hua Foundation - Parole, Sentence Reductions Benefit Hundreds of Prisoners in Beijing Before Spring Festival

An article published today on the front page of the Legal Daily reports on the release on parole of 144 prisoners in Beijing prisons immediately prior to the Spring Festival holiday (Chinese text below). An additional 361 prisoners received sentence reductions. A special ceremony was held at Beijing Prison, the municipality’s model prison, on January 21 at which representatives of Beijing’s law enforcement community watched as officials from the Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court announced parole decisions for 87 inmates.According to the article, Beijing party leaders have instructed law enforcement agencies to be more lenient in assessing the eligibility for parole of older prisoners, those whose crimes were committed accidentally, female prisoners, juvenile prisoners, and those whose families are facing particular difficulties. At the same time, they have been warned to be particularly careful in issuing sentence reduction and parole to those at risk of committing further crimes, such as violent criminals, serial offenders, or repeat offenders.

The types of prisoners in Beijing who received parole and sentence reductions are similar to those paroled in Sichuan in the latter half of 2008, when the Sichuan prison system released more than 1,000 prisoners categorized as “elderly, infirm, or disabled.” (See Dui Hua’s Human Rights Journal entry on the Sichuan paroles posted on January 8.)

The reports from Sichuan and Beijing may point to greater use of parole and sentence reduction for Chinese prisoners who don’t pose threats to society. They coincide with a growing debate in China about making more use of the special pardon mechanisms provided for in China’s constitution, a topic that Dui Hua explores in its current issue of Dialogue.

北京144名服刑人员节前假释

1月21日上午，北京市召开宽严相济政策兑现大会，在全市各会场共有144名服刑人员被依法假释，361名服刑人员得到减刑。其中，北京市监狱主会场，北京市第一中级人民法院依法对87名服刑人员宣布了假释裁定，全市公、检、法、司相关部门领导出席了会议。

据了解，在北京市委政法委的部署下，全市公、检、法、司各单位对减刑假释工作规定进行了完善，进一步放宽了对老年犯、过失犯、女犯、未成年犯、家庭有特殊困难的罪犯假释条件；同时对重新犯罪风险较高的暴力犯、连续犯、有前科劣迹的罪犯细化了从严减刑假释条件。