Research On The Reform Of Prison In The Late Qing Dynasty (1901-1911)

Ten years in the late Qing Dynasty is a turbulent ten years. From 1901’s "New Deal" to the 1906 "preparation for constitutionalism”, and then to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, A short span of ten years has gone through many changes. Prison reform also was enveloped in these changes. At first it in the dark corner be disdained to cast aside, and then It was pushed in the teeth of the storm in the late Qing reform. The “Geng Chen incident” from 1900 to 1901 shocked the government of the Qing Dynasty deeply. At the same time of the government of the Qing Dynasty Make all-out efforts to achieve change to cater to the Western powers, it back to the reform of old road to increase its power. In the prison reform, the Qing government attaching great importance to it and take all sorts of measures of it. This paper carried out a research on prison reform in late Qing Dynasty, its content is not profound, only a general description of the prison reform. This paper is divided into six parts.The first part is the introduction, briefly introduced the research background, significance of this paper, the research status at home and abroad, research perspectives and basic frame of this paper. Less research on the late Qing period of prison reform, some weight, but it was part of the reform, through which we can explore the value of the overall reform in the Qing dynasty. This thesis follows the order of time, from the thought and practice two generous face prison reform in the late Qing dynasty were discussed, hope to be helpful to the research in the field of the prison.The second part: Introduce the origin of the prison and the conditions in prison before the prison reform in late Qing Dynasty. Chinese always has such view” Gao Tao created the prison and then legal existence”. In Xia Shang Zhou Dynasty, the earliest prison has exists. The word of prison appeared in the Qing Dynasty. The prison conditions were very decadent before the prison reform in the late Qing Dynasty. The prison guards were very cruel; they used to blackmail the prisoners. The prison was called “Base prison”, it made people fear.The third part: To explore the causes of prison reform in late Qing Dynasty. There are two reasons for the internal and external aspects of the prison reform. The external cause is the stimulation of revoke the extraterritoriality. From 1843 to 1901, The Western powers through a series of unequal treaties to grab the China extraterritoriality for more than half a century. The scope of the power coverage from the trading ports to the inland area. The China judicial sovereignty was badly damaged. The Qing government Started of prison reform in the reform of resolve and under the false promise of the Western powers. The internal cause is the advocates of compassionated prisoners and established the prisoner workhouse in the national scope advocated by Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong and Zhao Erxun who were important ministers in the Qing government. Liu Kunyi was the Liangjiang governor, Zhang Zhidong was the Huguang governor. They have great role in promoting the reform of prison. Zhao Erxun was the governor of Shanxi Province. His advocate of established the criminal workhouse had realistic significance. Shen Jiaben and Wu Tingfang were the ministers whose work was revised law. Their suggestions about prison reform with legal perspective were coherent and easy to implement.The fourth part: Make a brief introduction to the prison administration thought of Shen Jiaben and Oka Shigejiro. Shen Jiaben was Legal expert; he put forward the thought of constructing the model prisons, training special prison officials, making prison statistics, taking reformatory education. Oka Shigejiro was Dr. Penology of Japan. He was famous for advocating the abolition of the death penalty. He served as a prison officer in Japan. Oka Shigejiro came to China in 1908 to serve as a teacher in the law school. He helped the Qing government for designing the model prison. He involved in the drafting of the prison law draft.The fifth part: Make a brief introduction to the practice work by The Qing government for the prison reform. The Qing government sent officials to participate in the eighth session of the Jail Conference. Those officials investigated the judicial affairs, the trial and the prison system of Britain, France, Japan, American and other countries. The Qing government adopted the advocate of Zhao Erxun to construct the prisoner workhouse. Then, The Qing government according to Shen Jiaben’s claim to build model prisons in the provincial capital and trade port. Executing labor system and education system. Meanwhile, The Qing government commanded to establish prison schools in every province. In 1910, under the help of Oka Shigejiro, The Qing Dynasty created the prison law draft of Qing Dynasty for the first time.The sixth part: This part is to do the summary to the whole article. On the one hand, the result of prison reform was negative. The prison reform campaign had not reached the expected goals. Due to the lack of specialized construction personnel, the model prisons had many quality problems. The education system had not implemented basically. The prison schools had not cultured enough management personnel. On the other hand, the prison reform campaign had positive significance. The model prisons were received by the Beiyang government and the National government to hold prisoners continually. The prison law draft was used by the Beiyang government and the National government. Prison reform activities after the Qing Dynasty always learn more from the prison reform in the Qing Dynasty.In the last ten years of the Qing Dynasty, many important things happened. The prison reform was just the one part of all the reform activities. It has made great achievements. Shen Jiaben and a group of intellectuals have made a great contribution. Their spirit is worth us to learn.