国内英语新闻:China makes progress in promoting community corrections: ministry

NANCHANG, July 31 (Xinhua) - More cities, counties and townships in China have implemented community correction programs instead of imprisoning not-serious offenders, according to a statement released Friday after a meeting held by the Ministry of Justice in eastern China' s Jiangxi Province.

In the first half of 2010, the community correction programs were implemented in four more prefecture-level cities, 84 more counties and city districts, and 2,858 more townships and urban communities, it said.

That means the programs are now in 222 prefecture-level cities, 1,420 counties and city districts, and 17,981 townships and urban communities.

Further, ten provinces and municipalities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have the programs in all their townships and urban communities.

About 486,000 offenders have been committed to community correction programs nationwide, up from 350,000 at the end of 2009.

Only 0.2 percent of them committed offences again while they were attending the correction program, the statement said.