Re-education Through Labor

Re-education through labor (RTL) (simplified Chinese: 劳动教养; traditional Chinese: 勞動教養; pinyin: láodòng jiàoyǎng), abbreviated (simplified Chinese: 劳教; traditional Chinese: 勞教; pinyin: láojiào) is a system of administrative detentions in the People's Republic of China which is generally used to detain persons for minor crimes such as petty theft, prostitution, and trafficking illegal drugs, as well as religious or political dissidents such as unregistered Christians or Falun Gong adherents. Sentences typically span one to three years, with the possibility of an additional one-year extension. Re-education through labor sentences are issued as a form of administrative punishment by police, rather than through the judicial system. While incarcerated, detainees are often subject to some form of political education. Torture, sometimes resulting in death, has also been reported in labor camps. The re-education through labor system has been in place since 1957 and was subjected to minor reforms by the Chinese government in 2007. Estimates on the number of RTL detainees on any given year ranges from 190,000 to 2 million. China Daily in 2007 estimated that there were a total of 310 re-education centers in China at that time.