Labor Camps

From Yahoo:
"Official says China to end labor camp sentences"

 China will stop handing down labor camp sentences this year under a system that allowed police to lock up government critics and other defendants for up to four years without trial, the country's top law enforcement official said Monday. The move would be a key step in reforming China's judicial system, though details remained unclear, including what would become of existing "reeducation through labor" camps and their current inmates and whether this presages a new system involving court hearings before defendants can be sent to such facilities. The comments by Communist Party Politics and Law Committee head Meng Jianzhu were not officially announced, but were reported by Chen Dongsheng, a bureau chief for the Legal Daily, the official newspaper of China's Justice Ministry. The proposal must first be sent to China's legislature, the National People's Congress, for approval, Chen quoted Meng as saying. The labor camp system originally was used to detain accused counterrevolutionaries or other critics of the Communist government, but was later expanded to punish prostitutes, drug addicts and other minor criminals. Authorities sentenced large numbers of Falun Gong adherents to the camps after banning the meditation movement as an evil cult in the late 1990s. The labor camp system has been widely condemned by lawyers and human rights activists as outdated and open to abuse, especially in locking away those who criticize officials or government policies. China has 310 labor camps holding about 310,000 prisoners and employing 100,000 staff, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Ending labor camp sentences appears to be an indication of new Communist leader Xi Jinping's desire to carry out moderate political and legal reforms that had largely stalled under predecessor Hu Jintao. Since taking power in November, Xi has called for further crackdowns on corruption and government extravagance and the strengthening of the legal system.

^ If this turns out to be true than this would be a major step for the Chinese. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/official-says-china-end-labor-camp-sentences-