Prominent lawyers are joining those now calling on China to reform its controversial laojiao system, or re-education through labor¹ system, which allows suspects to be sentenced to forced labor without first undergoing a trial.

 

知名律师加入声讨大军，要求国家对劳教制度进行改革。劳教制度可以在未经审判的情况下对犯罪嫌疑人做出强制劳动处罚。

 

Re-education through labor就是“劳（动）教（养）”的英文说法，这是一种administrative punishment（行政处罚），无须法院审判定罪即可deprive freedom of a suspect（限制嫌疑人人身自由）、re-educate suspect through forced labor（通过强制劳动进行再教育）。

 

十位律师对公安部和司法部发出open letter（公开信），称劳教制度的intransparency（不透明性）和lack of supervision（缺少监督）会导致abuse of power（权力滥用）。