Call to toughen sentence reduction, parole system

Legislators must regulate the way sentences are reduced and paroles given as these rules are exploited by officials and prisoners, said Zhang Liyong, president of High People's Court in Central China's Henan province.

He said lawmakers should provide a practical guideline on how to reduce sentences and paroles to ensure that they are enforced systematically.

Zhang, who is also a delegate at the National People's Court, said the abuse of these laws has enraged the public and such abuses must stop.

In Zhang's 10-year study on the issue, he found some inmates sentences reduced after they provided money and some judicial officials got promotion after improving the rate of criminals' parole.

These kinds of abuses have affected judicial credibility, he said.

In 2012, a tribunal was established in the high people's court to study sentence reduction and parole system.

The tribunal was also tasked with supervising and guiding junior courts in the provinces on how to cut down someone's sentence and how to release them, he said.

Cases of parole and sentence reduction are now heard in public, while some of them were also broadcast via micro-blogs.

In 2013, 10,308 such cases were tried in public in the provinces, with media and people providing the supervision, he said.

In addition, while giving sentence reduction or parole to officials above director level, or to gangs or to people involved high-profile cases the courts must record the whole process in the system, said Zhang.