News Plus慢速英语:中国劳教制度废止 社区矫正备受关注

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.
这里是NEWS Plus慢速英语。我是马克·格里菲思，从北京为您带来报道。以下是详细新闻内容。

China has recently decided to abolish the controversial "re-education through labor" system. The move has been hailed by legal professionals as a major step in protecting human rights.
近日，中国决定废止备受争议的“劳教”制度。法律工作者称赞这一决定是在保护人权方面取得的重要进步。

The system, known as laojiao, was created in 1957 when the top legislature endorsed a proposal submitted by the State Council, China's cabinet, to allow laojiao committees to detain minor wrongdoers for up to four years without an open trial.
劳教制度始于1957年，当时最高立法机会批准了国务院（即中国内阁）提交的建议，允许劳教委员会收容未成年违法者而不进行公开审判，最高期限为四年。

Inmates in labor camps are usually drug addicts undergoing treatment or other such cases in which the wrongdoing does not constitute a crime.
劳教所里关押的违法人员通常为正在接受治疗的吸毒者或是其他类似的不构成犯罪的违法行为。

Although the system helped consolidate the country and create social order after decades of revolution, it faces growing criticism.
虽然这一制度有助于国家在经历了数十年的革命之后巩固权力并创建社会秩序，但是却受到了越来越多的指责。

The system has made domestic and international headlines since last year, when Tang Hui, mother of a kidnapping and rape victim in Yongzhou, Hunan province, received a laojiao sentence for repeatedly petitioning for harsher sentences for her daughter's attackers.
这一制度自去年开始登上国内新闻和国际新闻的头条，原因是湖南省永州市一女孩被绑架强奸后，她的母亲唐慧因不断上访要求判处伤害她女儿的罪犯更严厉的判决而被处以劳动教养。

Officially ending the system requires the National People's Congress to declare the 1957 decision invalid. Yi Xiangde, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says that both the courts and government would then have to issue new rules on how to handle offenders that laojiao currentlydeals with.
正式结束劳教制度需要全国人民代表大会宣布1957年的决定无效。中国社会科学院的研究员冀祥德表示，司法机关和政府要就如何解决目前劳教制度处理的罪犯发布新法规。

Under the current system, a laojiao committee consists of government departments such as police, civil affairs and education departments, usually with the police chief as its head.
依据现行的制度，劳动教养委员会由公安机关、民政部门和教育部门组成，由公安部门负责。

Wang Gongyi, a former senior researcher with the Ministry of Justice, says no rigid procedures are in place to regulate how the committee should determine the criminal facts and apply punishment.
前司法部高级研究员王公义表示，没有严格的程序规定该委员会如何认定犯罪事实和采取惩罚措施。

The decision to abolish the laojiao system was included in the detailed reform plan adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.
废止劳教制度的决定是十八届三中全会通过的深化改革计划的一部分。

The reform plan also calls for improving laws relating to correction and punishment.
这份改革计划要求完善与矫正和处罚有关的法律。

Community correction programs that help former prisoners return to society will also be improved.
同时，帮助出狱人员回归社会的社区矫正制度也将进行完善。