[1] According to historian John Delury, "Communist penal theory fused traditional Confucian and Buddhist notions of transformation with Soviet techniques.
Adding the number of detainees in Ministry of Public Security's detention centers of 650,000 reported at 2009, would result a total population of 2,300,000, and raise the rate to 164 per 100,000.
[5] Public security departments, People's Procuratorates, People's Courts and Supervisory Commissions can issue detention orders, and the detainees are usually held in facilities managed by public security departments, though supervisory commissions usually take care of their own detainees.
[6] Chinese police and security services routinely make use of torture to obtain confessions and information from detainees.
Public Security Administration Punishment Law states police should not question citizen on grounds authorized exceed eight hours, unless the citizen has violation that could result in administrative detention, in which case, the questioning could be extended to 24 hours.
[10] The procuratorates can approve arrest when there is a reasonable ground with requests from the police or sometimes on their own for public-servants-related crimes they investigate (which function has since been absorbed by Supervisory Commissions), after which the suspect is placed into Criminal (investigative) detention, which can last for two months, and with approval from superior office, can be extended to seven months.
[10] The people's courts can summon citizens and with approval from its Chief Judge, detain those who disrupt judicial process or refuse to cooperate.
[citation needed] The supervisory commissions (established in March 2018) can detain civil servants and politicians who are suspected of corruption when they have reasonable amount of evidence.
[13] For those who are prosecuted and found guilty, the court may sentence them to following penalties that limit one's freedom in accordance with the law: Public surveillance or Guanzhi (literally, Control) requires no jail time, and the convicted can return to his community immediately but must report their activities to the local police department or judicial administrative department regularly for the duration designated by the court from a minimum three months to a maximum two years, and with multiple crimes combined sentencing can reach three years.
[14] Life imprisonment can almost always be reduced to fixed-term, though total time served must be no less than ten years.
Life without parole was enacted into the Criminal Law on Dec 11, 2015, is applicable to those convicted with embezzlement.
[14] Death penalty with two years reprieve will be commuted to life imprisonment if the convicted did not commit another serious crime within the two-year period or fixed-term imprisonment if the convicted helped solve a major crime or contributed the society greatly.
The death penalty is not applicable to pregnant women, minors, and in most cases, seniors more than 70 years old.
The perimeter of these facilities are watched by the People's Armed Police (PAP), but administrated by the public security department.
The only exception to this rule is Qincheng Prison, which is managed by the Ministry of Public Security and is reported to have held high-profile convicts.
The Prisons reportedly have better living conditions than the detention centers which are operated by the public security station, depending on where they are located.
The Chinese government does not provide sufficient funds to prisons and detention facilities and as a result, their staffs are forced to generate their own revenues.
[20] However, it has been widely reported that the sexual abuse of prisoners by authorities is widespread in the Chinese penal system.
As a result, those who should be in community correction programs largely remain free, besides their monthly duty to report to police stations.
On August 28, 2015, Xi Jinping signed the pardon order which resulted in the release of over thirty thousand prisoners, most of whom had participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War or the Chinese Communist Revolution.