With the continuous development of the national economy, the process of governing the country according to law, the continuous improvement of human rights and the deepening of citizens' awareness of the rule of law, equality and justice, the legal provisions, institutional guarantees and actual enjoyment of the rights of criminals, citizens with special legal status, have attracted more and more attention from all walks of life. In recent years, the protection of criminals' rights in China has gradually entered the legal track, especially the promulgation of 1992 white paper on the reform of criminals in China and 1994 Prison Law and other laws and regulations. Prison execution organs have made epoch-making and solid steps in giving criminals humane treatment, respecting their personality and safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. Criminals enjoy legal rights corresponding to their special status, and recognizing and protecting the rights of criminals is an inevitable requirement of a society ruled by law. To grasp the rights of criminals as a whole, we must have a clear understanding of what rights criminals should enjoy, the current situation of their rights and how to effectively safeguard their legitimate rights. The clarification of these issues will certainly help law enforcers to further establish the concept of human rights protection; It is helpful to improve the quality of criminal reform; It is helpful to promote the realization of penalty function to the maximum extent. Therefore, this paper attempts to discuss the rights of criminals as a whole, with a view to providing some help for scientifically understanding the current situation of criminals' legal rights in China.
First, according to the provisions of China's Constitution, prison law and other laws and regulations, the legal composition of the rights enjoyed by criminals in China.
(1) Right to equality. Although criminals have committed crimes, as citizens, they still enjoy equal rights stipulated by the Constitution and laws, which is determined by the principle that all citizens are equal before the law. The equal rights of criminals mainly include: 1, the right of appeal. Including: the right of appeal in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings and the right of appeal in administrative punishment; 2. Right to sue and report. Criminals have the right to report and accuse judicial organs, executive organs and their staff of dereliction of duty and infringement; 3. Rights of participants in proceedings. Criminals still enjoy a series of litigation rights such as the right to defense, the right to appeal, the right to apply for withdrawal, and the right to apply for expert appraisal. In particular, if a criminal commits a new crime or is prosecuted for leaving a crime or missing a crime while serving his sentence, the criminal, as a defendant, enjoys the right to defense and the right to appeal.
(2) political rights. The political rights of citizens refer to the right of citizens to participate in the political life of the country. Criminals who have not been deprived of political rights shall enjoy the political rights stipulated by the Constitution and laws according to law. For example, according to the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC)'s "Several Provisions on Direct Election of People's Congresses below the County Level" and1Joint Notice on the Voting Rights of Prisoners and Prisoners on March 5, 983, criminals who have not been deprived of their political rights can exercise their voting rights, but they can stop exercising their voting rights because they are being investigated, prosecuted and tried by people's procuratorates or people's courts.
(3) personal rights. Personal rights in a broad sense include the right to life, the right to separation of powers, the right to personality, the right to health and the rights related to personal freedom, such as the right to correspondence and the right to freedom of religious belief. The personal rights of criminals in China are: 1, the right to life. If a criminal is not deprived of his life according to law, then his right to life should be recognized and protected, and no one can arbitrarily deprive him, including those sentenced to death with a suspended execution; 2. Right to health. Since criminals have not been deprived of their lives, they should enjoy the right to health while serving their sentences. In China, criminals' right to health includes food, clothing, shelter, medical care and health care. Criminals who participate in labor have the right to labor protection according to law; Criminals who really suffer from serious diseases can be temporarily executed outside prison if they meet the conditions; 3. Right not to be subjected to torture or corporal punishment or ill-treatment. China's laws expressly prohibit the supervisors of the supervision department and the personnel entrusted by the supervision department from beating, corporal punishment or maltreating the supervised person, and prohibit them from ordering the supervised person to beat, corporal punishment or maltreat other supervised persons; 4. The right to inviolability of personal dignity. The prison law stipulates in the general provisions that the personality of criminals shall not be insulted; The prison people's police shall not commit acts that insult the criminal's personality; 5. Right of communication and meeting. While serving a sentence, criminals may correspond with others and meet their relatives and guardians in accordance with relevant regulations; 6. Freedom of religious belief. China's constitution stipulates that citizens have the right to freedom of religious belief, and the white paper "The Situation of Reforming Criminals in China" also declares that "criminals have the right to believe in religion", but the criminal's right to believe in religion means "allowing religious criminals to maintain their original religious beliefs during their detention". The right to freedom of religious belief is different from that of ordinary citizens in scope.
(4) property rights. According to the laws of our country, the legitimate property of criminals is inviolable, and supervisors may not ask for it or occupy it; Moreover, the prisoners' non-daily necessities are kept by the regulatory authorities and will be returned when they are released. When criminals have legitimate purposes, they can be allowed to receive them. In addition, criminals also enjoy the right of inheritance and some property rights in intellectual property rights according to law.
(5) Social, economic, cultural and educational rights. Including the right to work, the right to rest, the right to get material help, the right to education and the right to science and culture. : 1, right to work. According to the constitution, every citizen, including criminals, has dual rights and obligations, so criminals should also have the right to work. Articles 4, 8 and 72 of the Prison Law are specific provisions on prisoners' right to work. 2. The right to rest. Criminals who are workers also have the right to rest. The Prison Law stipulates that the working hours of prison prisoners shall be implemented with reference to the relevant state regulations on working hours, and prisoners have the right to rest on statutory holidays and rest days; 3. The right to material help. Articles 37 and 73 of the Prison Law clearly stipulate the conditions for criminals and released prisoners to receive material assistance. 4. Right to education. According to the Constitution, education also has dual attributes. For criminals, on the one hand, this is a right and an important content of the criminal's right to development; On the other hand, it is an obligation with the compulsion of transformation; 5. The right to participate in cultural activities. Criminals enjoy certain rights to engage in scientific research, literary and artistic creation and entertainment activities according to law. According to the prison law, prisons can reward criminals who have made inventions, technological innovations or achieved certain results in imparting production technology. Prisons should organize prisoners to carry out appropriate sports activities and cultural and recreational activities.
(6) Marriage and family rights. Including the freedom of marriage of criminals, the right of legal marriage and family not to be illegally violated and other rights related to marriage and family. According to the relevant provisions of China's Marriage Law, freedom of marriage includes freedom of marriage and freedom of divorce. In terms of marriage, although some administrative regulations or other internal norms in our country prohibit criminals from getting married during the execution outside prison, the law does not prohibit whether they can get married in prison. In practice, there are also examples of criminals getting married in prison. In divorce, criminals enjoy complete substantive rights and procedural rights, and their freedom of divorce is not subject to any interference.
(7) Other rights. In addition to the above rights, China's laws also stipulate other rights of criminals, such as the right of criminals to receive property in accordance with relevant regulations; Those who have expired their sentences or been sentenced to parole have the right to be released or paroled in accordance with regulations and obtain corresponding certificates; Female criminals, juvenile criminals and ethnic minority criminals enjoy some special rights. In addition, whether commutation and parole belong to the rights of criminals is controversial at present. I think that the commutation and parole of criminals is a kind of criminal reward for the performance of the prison people's police in reforming criminals. It is implemented in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and it does not have rights and freedoms, so it is not a right enjoyed by criminals themselves.
Second, the status quo and shortcomings of safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of criminals
1949 since the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC), especially since the reform and opening up, with the continuous development of China's economy and society and the deepening of the concept of human rights, the protection of criminals' rights has been paid more and more attention by all sectors of society. The state has successively signed a series of norms and international normative documents on criminals' rights, such as the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Criminals; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Declaration on the protection of everyone from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Medical ethical principles concerning the task of medical personnel, especially doctors, to protect prisoners or detainees from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules). Participate extensively in international exchanges and cooperation on the protection of criminals' rights. The state has also enacted a prison law and revised the criminal law, criminal procedure law and other relevant laws and regulations. The Ministry of Justice has carried out a large-scale institutional reform of prisons nationwide, adjusted the layout of prisons, and basically separated prisons from enterprises. These measures have greatly improved the environment for criminals to reform, enhanced their enthusiasm for reform, and made important contributions to national security and stability. Although we have made great achievements in protecting the rights and interests of criminals, we also see that there are still many shortcomings in protecting the rights and interests of criminals, which need to be continuously improved. Mainly in the following aspects:
(1) There is still a big gap in the norms of international criminal rights protection. Although China has acceded to many international conventions or treaties to protect criminals, it has made great achievements in protecting the rights of criminals, and the quality of criminal reform has also been greatly improved. These achievements are obvious to all and have been recognized by most countries in the world. It is a good proof that individual countries have repeatedly rejected human rights proposals against China at the United Nations Human Rights Conference. However, we should also see practical problems. Because our country is still in the primary stage of socialism, the material foundation is still very weak, and the development of productive forces is unbalanced, the living conditions of prison criminals are still far from the internationally accepted requirements. For example, living conditions, living standards and medical standards are still relatively low, which cannot be ignored.
(2) The laws and regulations to protect the rights and interests of criminals are not sound enough, and the allocation of police force is unreasonable. 1994 prison law has been promulgated for 13 years, and the detailed rules for the implementation of the prison law have not yet been promulgated. In the past ten years, the country has undergone earth-shaking changes, and many provisions of the prison law are outdated. In addition, the prison law itself is an abstract provision, which is difficult to grasp in judicial practice and lacks maneuverability. Judging from the requirements of modern prison construction, the overall police force of the prison is not enough, especially the police resources with professional skills are quite scarce, which is far from the minimum police force allocation standard stipulated by the Ministry of Justice and the requirements of expert talents that must be equipped for criminal correction. However, due to various reasons in the system and mechanism, it is difficult for many people who want to work in prisons to come in, which directly affects the improvement of the quality optimization of police resources. In addition, there is the problem of the distribution of police forces within the prison. There are too many police forces in prison organs and too few police forces at the grassroots level. The focus of prison work should be at the grassroots level. Only when the grass-roots police force is guaranteed can the security of prisons be guaranteed and the rights of criminals be truly realized.
(3) Prison hospitals (clinics) lack the ability to diagnose and treat diseases. Most prison hospitals (clinics) have poor facilities and backward equipment, and the overall medical level of medical staff is not high. There is no way to treat slightly complicated diseases, and the prisoners' right to health cannot be fundamentally guaranteed, which not only affects the prisoners' enthusiasm for reform, but also brings security risks to the reform order in the prison area. For example, criminal XXX, suffering from severe psoriasis, has unbearable itching all over his body, especially in summer, and can't sleep all night. Later, criminals simply didn't sleep at night, because poor rest affected their normal work. In addition, the frequent sentencing of criminals has caused great psychological pressure, and he also wants to make a good reform. However, the illness seriously affected his mood and caused great harm to his body and mind.
(4) Prisons can never get rid of heavy production tasks, and overtime work happens from time to time. Although the prison system has been reformed, the separation of supervision from enterprises has been implemented, and the state has allocated full funds for prison reform, but due to the heavy financial burden of the state, the financial allocation can not meet the actual requirements of prison construction, so the focus of production tasks in prisons has not changed much, and the superiors will still assign certain production tasks to prisons. In the assessment and promotion of leaders at all levels, the production situation of the unit is also an important assessment index. This practice makes leaders at all levels and even grassroots police officers dare not take labor production lightly. In the case of tight delivery time in production task comparison, it is inevitable to work overtime, which will affect the criminals' right to rest to a certain extent.
(5) The incidents of violation of law and discipline by prison staff are endless. In recent years, the state has intensified its investigation into the law enforcement of prison police officers, and has successively promulgated a number of rules and regulations, such as "five prohibitions" and "six prohibitions", the implementation measures for the discipline supervision of police officers' law enforcement, and the methods for investigating the responsibility of police officers' law enforcement. However, a considerable number of police officers have violated the law and been punished by party discipline and political discipline, and some have even been sentenced to prison and changed their police uniforms into prison uniforms. The lesson is painful. Prison staff's violation of law and discipline is mainly manifested in: illegal use of warning devices, causing physical injury to criminals; Taking advantage of the criminal's desire for commutation and parole, accepting bribes and blackmailing the criminal's family; Use their rights to have sex with criminals' families, proper relationship and so on.
Third, some thoughts on safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of criminals.
With the continuous strengthening of China's national strength, the deepening of reform and opening up, and the continuous promotion of the concept of human rights, it is bound to become the top priority of prison work to effectively protect the legitimate rights of criminals. Formulating and perfecting laws and regulations to protect criminals' rights is not only conducive to perfecting law enforcement notarization and ensuring the realization of criminals' legitimate rights, but also of great significance to improving criminals' enthusiasm for reform, reducing recidivism, maintaining prison safety and national stability, and serving the grand goal of building a harmonious society.
(1) Revise and improve the prison law and other relevant laws and regulations, so that the rights and interests of criminals can be protected by rules. 1994 prison law has been promulgated for 13 years, and it is hard to imagine that it has not been revised yet. In the past ten years, great achievements have been made in the prison cause and great changes have taken place in the reform situation. As an important basis for prison law enforcement, the Prison Law has not been revised, which is really incredible and directly leads to many problems that cannot be implemented in judicial practice. In addition, as a supporting regulation of the Prison Law, the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Prison Law has never been promulgated, which leads to great differences in law enforcement in different regions and even prisons. For example, Shanghai stipulates that parole for criminals from other provinces and cities is limited to 18 Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and cities. In order to further make the prison reform keep pace with the development of the international situation and ensure that the legitimate rights of criminals have a practical legal basis, it is urgent to amend the prison law and formulate detailed rules for its implementation.
(2) Strengthen the construction of prison software and hardware, and improve the quality of life and education level of prisoners. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), due to the needs of the situation at that time, many prisons were built in remote and backward areas, which contributed to the stability and development of the country at that time. Decades have passed and great changes have taken place in social conditions. It is not only unnecessary to continue to put prisons in these remote and backward areas, but also brings many problems, such as the inconvenience caused by continuous traffic and the difficulty in attracting outstanding talents to work in prisons. After the reform and opening up, the state has carried out a series of major reforms in prisons, adjusted the layout, moved some prisons that are particularly remote and inconvenient to traffic to areas with convenient transportation, carried out prison reform, and separated prisons from enterprises. But on the whole, the strength is not strong enough, and there are still many problems to be solved, such as outdated facilities in prison hospitals (clinics), insufficient facilities for diagnosis and treatment of common diseases and serious diseases, poor facilities in many old prisons, and high density of prisoners. As far as prison software construction is concerned, the whole prison feels closed. For a long time in the past, it was difficult to attract social workers and college students to work in prisons because of institutional reasons. Prison staff are basically veterans, and the source of personnel is single, which makes them somewhat passive in their work. In recent years, the state has realized this problem, and listed prison staff as a series of civil servants, and openly recruited from the society and fresh college students, which has achieved good results, especially in Shanghai.
(3) Ensuring the supply of prison funds and improving the welfare of staff can effectively reduce the probability of police breaking the law. Undeniably, compared with the past, the welfare treatment of prison police officers has been greatly improved, but compared with similar occupations, the gap is still relatively large. Many policemen complain that everything is going up now, but wages are not going up. On the other hand, as a special place to reform criminals, prison police are generally under great pressure, and the proportion of police suffering from various diseases is high, which fully shows the harsh working environment of prison police. In this case, due to the dual effects of life pressure and psychological pressure, as well as the influence of social pluralistic values, some weak-willed people will not hesitate to try the law. If the welfare benefits can be effectively improved and the working environment of police officers can be improved, the violations of law and discipline by prison police officers will be greatly reduced, thus better protecting the rights and interests of criminals and their families.
(4) Establish and improve various rules and regulations to fundamentally protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminals. Montesquieu, a French thinker, famously said in the article "On the Spirit of Law": "All powerful people are prone to abuse their power, which is an eternal and difficult experience." Lord acton, a professor at Cambridge University in England, once said: "Power leads to corruption, and absolute power leads to absolute corruption." This is a lesson from the past, we can't repeat the same mistakes ... extreme power leads to corruption, and such examples abound in life! In recent years, cases of violation of law and discipline in prisons have appeared constantly, reflecting the insufficient supervision of prison law enforcement. I think we can start from the following aspects: First, strengthen the training of prison police officers and constantly improve their quality. Although there is a lot of police training and warning education, the effect is not ideal. Efforts should be made in legal education and training, so that police officers can clearly understand the serious consequences that violation of law and discipline may bring to themselves and their families; The second is to strengthen the supervision and inspection of prison law enforcement by procuratorial organs stationed in prison, lacking dynamic supervision mechanism. At present, there are two main ways for the procuratorate to inspect prison law enforcement, namely, the procuratorate mailbox and the prosecutor contact system. It is difficult for procuratorial organs to fully understand the law enforcement situation of police officers through these two supervision methods, which is far from meeting the needs of prison law enforcement supervision. The third is to effectively improve the transparency of prison law enforcement and strengthen public supervision. Only by operating in the sun and actively accepting the supervision of the public can we ensure the justice and civilization of prison law enforcement. Due to historical reasons, there is little contact between prisons and society. With the steady progress of prison reform, prisons should slowly turn from closed to open and accept public supervision. In recent years, it is a good opening measure for prisons to hire social supervisors and allow the media to interview and report. In the past, various media paid less attention to prisons, and once they were reported, there were more negative news. Practice has proved that accepting the supervision of the public can effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminals.
In short, with the continuous development of national political construction and the deepening of reform and opening up, the rights and interests of criminals will be more and more fairly protected, and with the gradual advancement of prison reform, the scope of rights enjoyed by criminals will be more and more. As a prison policeman, we should grasp and understand the laws and regulations of the country in time, strengthen the study of the socialist concept of rule of law, change the concept of law enforcement in time, and enhance the awareness of fair law enforcement. Don't make fun of yourself because your actions infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of criminals. While understanding what rights criminals enjoy, we should also deeply understand the problems and shortcomings that criminals encounter when exercising these rights in judicial practice, and then clearly understand what efforts prisons need to make to protect the rights of criminals, earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights of criminals, promote the improvement of the quality of education and reform, reduce criminals' recidivism, and make some contributions to building a harmonious society.