“Reflect on yesterday, grasp today and move toward tomorrow.” These are words that Liu Pinglin, judicial administrator of Banjing Township, Rugao City, Jiangsu Province, has always shared with people in his community correction program. Over the past eight years, Liu has used his sincere feeling and love to help 147 offenders complete their correction programs on schedule. On New Year’s Day in 2014, I saw 16 silk banners hung on the wall of Liu’s office, which were gifts from people who had completed their correction terms.

 

Liu, 54, has received 23 honors, including 10 Safety Guardians of Nantong City, Prestigious Police of Jiangsu Province, and National Model Meditator. With deep feeling, he said, “The greatest payoff to me is using a loving heart to care for people who are emerging from prison and returning to their communities so that they can become law-abiding citizens and be useful to society.”

 

Community correction is a mechanism allowing criminal offenders, who are not suited for prison, to be placed in the community. It brings  together government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and volunteers to help offenders rectify themselves both psychologically and behaviorally and return to society. This mechanism is often applied to juvenile delinquents, minor criminal offenders, aged or disabled criminals and negligence criminals. Community correction is an indicator of progress in the legal system.[page]

 

 

 

In March 2005, Liu’s judicial office began a pilot program involving community correction for offenders, such as criminals with suspended sentences, criminals serving sentences outside prisons and people completing the last part of their sentences outside prisons. Grassroots judicial offices are not like police stations where coercive measures may be used. Nor are they like prisons, which have armed police. Facing this entirely new task, Liu utilized the information network built for legal work in his township and established a database for people in the community correction program, which connects prisons and communities. The network effectively monitors the people in the correction program.[page]

 

Dialogue and a deep exchange of views are the best ways to help these people. Liu designed an outline for community correction measures, in line with the criminal law, the criminal procedural law and the community correction regulations of Jiangsu Province, in order to strengthen emotional interaction with the offenders and use love to clean their spirits. Interviews, group discussions and one-to-one talks were useful for getting information about their living conditions, habits, families and social environments. Liu conducted nearly 100 talks with 19 people, many of whom shed tears. All the people with whom Liu talked finished their correction programs on schedule.

 

In order to do his correction management work well, Liu has adopted five characteristics: being careful, open-minded, patient, caring and vigilant. He is careful about the daily management of his office and work standardization. He is open-minded by learning relevant knowledge about community correction, improving his legal awareness and enhancing his management capability. He is patient in helping the targeted people build their own confidence and arouse their passion for work and life. He cares about their difficulties and problems in work and life. He is vigilant about hidden problems and tries to prevent offenders from evading monitoring or breaking the law again. “Without community correction, I would not have my current life,” said a man surnamed Wang. “It’s Liu’s community correction that changed my life.” Now, Wang is running a wholesale business, and has bought a car and an apartment.

 

Liu often tells those people that their families and communities warmly welcome them to come back. He respects them, cares about them, ensures their rights and acts as their counselor.

 

The grassroots judicial offices in Nantong initiated the use of discussion rooms, “blowing off steam” (catharsis) rooms and consultation rooms, as well as the use of psychological counselors. With these features, a distinctive community correction culture has been successfully created. The walls of the discussion rooms employ soft padding and monitors are used all the time. Catharsis rooms are equipped with special instruments offenders can use to release their emotions and achieve psychological balance. Consultation rooms are used for psychological consultations to help offenders change their attitude and behavior, and increase their ability to control themselves in order to re-enter society as soon as possible and head toward new lives.[page]

 

In May 2011, a 17-year-old surnamed Gu from Xiaoma Village had a traffic accident while riding a motorcycle without a license. The accident led to one death. As a result, Gu was sentenced to one year in prison with a one-and-a-half year suspended sentence. Gu was moved to the township judicial office for community correction. Gu was a high school student who was the only male offspring in three generations of his family. High pressure from his family, the school and society made him stressed and he tried to commit suicide. Liu treated Gu as his own child and established a mechanism by which his school would help to change him through education. Meanwhile, Liu kept in close contact with Gu’s family and frequently invited psychologists to provide psychological counseling to Gu. In less than half a year, Gu achieved psychological balance and built up confidence and courage again. At the beginning of 2013, Gu completed his correction term. On that very day, his parents, teachers and classmates, more than 50 in total, arrived at the judicial office. As Liu announced that Gu had finished his correction term and was named a model for the community, his parents emotionally thanked Liu for helping their son and saving the whole family. In the summer of 2013, Gu passed the National College Entrance Examination and went to college.

 

The key to helping criminals return to society is to give them love and care as well as establish a robust, socialized, coordinated support system. Liu has often solicited advice from courts, procuratorates, police stations and prisons, exploring the best means of grassroots community correction. With support from the Nantong Shunfan Household Articles Company, Liu established the first criminal community correction center in the province. He has also used resources from agricultural technology stations, industrial companies, job centers and supermarkets to organize legal education and correction for these people, and offer them professional training and employment  help. About 98 percent of the trainees successfully completed the skills training programs. In the past three years, Shunfan has helped in the correction of 87 people and paid them 100,000 yuan in salary. In March 2011, Shunfan was named by the provincial judicial department as a community correction base for criminals.[page]

 

A criminal surnamed Wang was sentenced to 18 years in prison for fraud, rape and escape from prison. After he was released early, Wang came back home to find he had no property. Even worse, no family members wanted to take him in. Faced with hard times, Wang threatened to commit new crimes so he could go back to prison for the rest of his life. Liu managed to find a room for Wang and help him find a job in a local business. Wang thanked Liu for his care and expressed his willingness to go back to a normal life.

 

In the afternoon of New Year’s Day, 2014, accompanied by Liu, I met another criminal, surnamed Li, who is in the community correction program. Li sat on a bench and played chess with his neighbor. He was sentenced for fraud to five years in prison and served three years. In August 2013, he applied for community correction. After he reported to the township judicial office, Liu treated him like a family member. “There is nothing better than reuniting with my family and enjoying a normal life,” Li said. “Freedom is so precious and I have to behave well in the correction program as a way of thanking Judicial Office Head Liu.”

 

Community correction purifies people’s spirits, creating new people. Among those who have completed the community correction program are Zhang, who had intentionally injured others and is now a citizen who strictly abides by the law; Zhao, who was given a suspended death sentence and is now a model worker; Jing, who was sentenced for causing a traffic accident，voluntarily participated in the relief effort after the devastating Wenchuan earthquake, thus contributing to the social welfare.

 

Following the model of the community correction program set up by Liu, 21 townships and districts in Rugao City have now established correction entities or bases, with six being given the title of “Nantong City Community Correction Base.”

 

(The author is a stringer for Nantong Daily.)