Laogai: "Reform Through Labor" in China
This 2000 article describes "'Laogai,' which translates from Mandarin to mean 'reform through labor,' [and] is the Chinese [criminal] system of labor prison factories, detention centers, and re-education camps." Topics include the three types of Laogai (convict labor, re-education through labor, and forced job placement), conditions, and applicable Chinese law and international law standards. From Human Rights Brief, a student-run publication of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Washington College of Law.
URL: http://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/07/2laogai.cfm
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26787
Reeducation Through Labor in China
This 1998 paper describes the Chinese "system of detention and punishment administratively imposed on those who are deemed to have committed minor offenses but are not legally considered criminals. Reeducation through labor ... is not to be confused with reform though labor ... the complex of prisons, labor camps, and labor farms for those sentenced judicially." Includes comparison of the criminal and non-criminal systems. From Human Rights Watch.
URL: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/china-98/laojiao.htm
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26786
This August 2008 article considers the recent functioning of "re-education-through-labor" camps in China. The article notes that "since the re-education-through-labor camps were created in the late 1950s, they have -- at least in theory -- been oriented toward 'rehabilitating' inmates both politically and morally" but now have an emphasis on many hours of labor, and not political study. Includes links to related material. From the online magazine Slate.
URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2198321/
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/26788
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