(Source: Xinhua and China Daily, 2012-03-02 ) 

China’s State Council, or the Cabinet, on Thursday promulgated a regulation on the administration of the country’s detention centers and the protection of the detainees’ legitimate rights. However, the regulation is applicable only to the detention houses holding people in custody for minor offenses. It will not cover the sites where criminal suspects are detained.

In China, minor offenders such as those who disturbed public order or court order will be detained for up to 15 days. The regulation asked the detention centers to protect the detainees’ legitimate rights and interests and prohibited the centers and the warders from insulting, abusing and imposing physical punishments on the detainees.

Nor should the warders instruct or permit others to do so, the regulation said. The detention centers should inform the detainees of their legal rights and the rules they should abide by. The centers should also give timely notice to the detainees family members, according to the regulation. Moreover, the regulation required the centers to organize proper physical and cultural activities for the inmates, and the inmates should be allowed of outdoor activities of no less than two hours each day. The regulation also banned forced labor in the detention houses.

Furthermore, the detention centers are told to provide necessary drug rehabilitation treatments for the detained drug addicts. The body frisking and administration work on female detainees should only be conducted by female police officers, according to the regulation.

The regulation forbids detention houses from forcing those in custody to work, “a major step forward” compared with the current guideline on detention house management, experts said. The existing regulation allows the detained to do “proper work” in custody, but said the revenues have to be used to subsidize accommodation and buy daily necessities for the detained.

Wang Hongjun, director of the public order research office at the Chinese People’s Public Security University, said the new regulation has attached great importance to rights of people under detention. “Previously, people faced a harsh situation after being held in custody, and their rights could barely be protected by the old rules,” Wang said.

Tang Hongxin, a Beijing-based criminal lawyer, said the changes are “up to international standards”, and can better protect the rights of the detained “if they can be enforced well. It is the first time forced work in China’s detention-house has been explicitly ruled out by a regulation,” he said. Apart from this, the regulation also requires detention houses to respect the dietary habits of different ethnic groups, and to ensure outdoor activities for the detained are not fewer than two hours each day. The regulation marks another step by the country after it released a guideline in June to protect the rights of drug addicts who are housed in compulsory rehabilitation centers. The regulation on drug addicts bans forced work of drug abusers in rehabilitation, and if they are willing to work, the working hours can be no longer than six hours each day and their health has to be considered. Tang and Wang said it would be better if the regulation were more specific. “One of the articles said staff members responsible for detentions should tell the detained people’s relatives and lawyers in a timely manner, but it does not clearly write a time limit,” Tang said. “That might make it difficult for officers to enforce in the future.”

The regulation, which will take effect from April 1, was drafted to replace the current one issued in 1990.

(Edited By: China West Lawyer)