Top court's review has two goals
The Supreme People's Court campaign to review sentences handed down by lower courts is both an offensive against corruption and an attempt to enforce discipline, lawyers and scholars say.
The court announced at the weekend that it would start a nationwide review of lower courts' decisions to reduce prison terms and offer early parole. The review would focus on cases from the past three years and investigators would examine the lower courts' reasons for reducing terms and offering parole.
Increasingly, convicted criminals are using money or influence to win more lenient sentences.
Beijing lawyer Xu Lanting said it was easy for many criminals to get out of prison this way. 'But some prisoners who should qualify for a reduced term or parole do not succeed because they are nobodies,' Mr Xu said.
Last year, Xie Hongjun , chief warder of a prison in Dalian , went on trial for taking bribes and releasing a notorious crime boss on medical parole on false grounds. Two weeks after the crime boss was freed, he killed another criminal. Han Yusheng , a criminologist at People's University, said this case was believed to have triggered the latest review.
Mr Han said prison authorities had a particularly heavy responsibility and any misuse of their powers could have a high social cost.
Only 3 per cent of prisoners on the mainland are granted parole every year, a rate much lower than in developed countries.
