This year . . . a total of 180,000 convicts spent Lantern Festival, which fell last Sunday, at home rather than in jail, thanks to the community correction program.

China started to trial run the program in 2003 in Beijing and Shanghai, then extended it to 27 provinces.

Having fulfilled their compulsory education and services, offenders on the community correction program can go to work and meet their friends just like ordinary people. (China Daily)

I’ve been asked many times about China’s approach to mediation, community policing, and other alternative programs in the enforcement of law here. Recent reforms suggest a great deal of interest in non-traditional methods, which may be motivated by an attempt to reconcile current conditions with the Harmonious Society.

Community corrections here sounds similar to programs used in the West. You may have seen examples where convicts are allowed to carry out criminal sentences at home. These programs often use security technology (e.g. in the U.S., devices are often affixed to the convict’s ankle that notifies authorities if the convict leaves home) to monitor movement of these people.

These programs are also in line with the new “Tempering Justice With Mercy” campaign, recently outlined by the Supreme People’s Court and which has included reform in the way China uses and carries out the death penalty. I wrote about the new policy last month:

The guidelines say the death penalty should be “resolutely” handed down to those who have committed “extremely serious” crimes, but that the punishment should be reserved for the tiny minority of criminals against which there is valid and ample evidence.

So now it appears that reforms of the criminal justice system are more widespread than simply applying limits to death penalty cases. Community corrections is a way to keep folks out of prisons, maintain their ties with their communities, and give people opportunities to minimize their total sentences.

But wait. Those aren’t the only noteworthy reforms of the criminal justice system. An important one involves the method of State execution:

Another humanitarian move is the increasing use of the lethal injection to replace the traditional method of bullet to the back of the head, which has been in use for decades and was the only lawful execution method until 1996.

(I just love the sheer bluntness of that sentence. Almost as cut and dried as a bullet to the back of the head.)