Staffing Composition, Offender Profiles, and Supervision in China’s Community Corrections

AuthorShanhe Jiang,Shuaining Huang,Dawei Zhang,Darrell D. Irwin,Haoyue Zhang
Published date01 June 2019
Date01 June 2019
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0032885519836955
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885519836955
The Prison Journal
2019, Vol. 99(3) 285 –309
© 2019 SAGE Publications
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0032885519836955
journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj
Article
Staffing Composition,
Offender Profiles, and
Supervision in China’s
Community Corrections
Dawei Zhang1, Darrell D. Irwin2, Shanhe Jiang3,
Haoyue Zhang4, and Shuaining Huang5
Abstract
In 2003, the Chinese government began the use of community corrections
to guide the reeducation and reform of offenders. Scholarly research within
the field of community corrections has since begun, but the development
of Chinese community corrections research is still in its infancy. There is
little information about offenders and community corrections’ institutional
organization and staffing. There is a dearth of comprehensive studies on
the administrative process of community corrections, particularly pretrial
investigation, transition of offenders, supervision, and a reward and
punishment system. Thus, this study explored these flaws and omissions
through research on offender profiles and the supervisors responsible for
the development of Chinese community corrections.
Keywords
China, community corrections, staffing composition, offender profiles,
supervision
1Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
2University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
3Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
4City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, China
5The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Corresponding Author:
Darrell D. Irwin, Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut, Manchester Hall, Room
325, 344 Mansfield Rd., Unit 1068, Storrs, CT 06269, USA.
Email: darrell.irwin@uconn.edu
836955TPJXXX10.1177/0032885519836955The Prison JournalZhang et al.
research-article2019
286 The Prison Journal 99(3)
Introduction
In 2003, the government of the People’s Republic of China (“China” in short)
began the use of community corrections to professionally reeducate and reform
offenders (Guo & Zheng, 2004). Since then, legal scholars and social scientists
in China have studied the use of community corrections. The relevant research
regarding China’s community corrections found in English language journals,
however, only began in 2014 among a small group of scholars (Jiang et al.,
2014). Emerging from these studies conducted by international scholars is a
distinctive body of work on China’s community corrections, which may be
divided into two categories. The first category provides an overview of Chinese
community corrections’ development and its basic types and practices (Jiang
et al., 2014; S. D. Li, 2014; E. Li, 2015; H. Li, 2017). For example, Jiang et al.
(2014) introduces the five types of community corrections sanctions, describ-
ing their characteristics and implementation, and discussing problems and
challenges. S. D. Li (2014) focuses on the motivations underlying correctional
reform—its goals and objectives, and key policy components. Next, E. Li
(2015, 2017) turns to an examination of the emergence and configuration of
community corrections in China, based on a study of community corrections in
Shanghai. That study finds that the practice of community corrections has man-
ifested strong evidence of actual justice in its form and function. Irwin, Zhang,
and Wang (2016) report the development of China’s community corrections in
rural settings by reviewing its public support.
The second category of studies by international scholars provides empiri-
cal analyses of Chinese community corrections from survey data. For
instance, Jiang, Xiang, et al. (2015), using survey data from 764 citizens in
Hubei province, examine the level of public support for community correc-
tions. Moving from citizens to community correctional officers, Jiang and his
associates then investigate the range of correctional officer punitive and reha-
bilitative orientations (Jiang, Jin, et al., 2016), their job satisfaction and
related factors (Jiang, Lambert, et al., 2016), their organizational commit-
ment and related predictors (Jiang et al., 2018), and job characteristics that
contribute to burnout (Jin, Sun, Jiang, Wang, & Wen, 2016). Based on field
observations and face-to-face interviews with 225 correctional staff and 260
volunteers from more than 100 local justice offices in 15 counties (or equiva-
lents) in Hubei, Jiang, Zhang, et al. (2015) reveal semiformal organizations
and a semiformal crime control model in Chinese community corrections.
However, many specifics regarding the development of Chinese commu-
nity corrections have yet to be thoroughly explored. To the best of our knowl-
edge, there has been no research detailing the development processes or
phases of Chinese community corrections since 2003. Going forward, studies

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