A few days ago, Hou Yahui, director of the Fifth Procuratorate (Criminal Enforcement Prosecution) of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said in an exclusive interview with The Paper that in 2023, procuratorial organs across the country will fully implement the decision-making and deployment of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Party Group, and the number of "temporarily reduced leave" supervision cases will reach 5 rose for the first time in years.
Hou Yahui, Director of the Fifth Procuratorate (Criminal Enforcement Prosecution) of the Supreme People's Procuratorate
In addition, Hou Yahui also introduced in an exclusive interview the situation of patrol inspections of prisons, detention centers and community corrections, and the investigation of duty-related crimes committed by judicial staff.
The number of "temporary leave reduction" supervision cases has increased for the first time in five years
The Paper News: "Temporary leave reduction" has always been the "none" of the penalty execution activities. Currently, such as "paper serving" and "withdrawing money from prison" and other chaotic actions It has been attracting much attention. What work is currently being done to supervise the cases of "leave reduction and temporary suspension"? How is the development going?
Hou Yahui: In 2023, procuratorial organs across the country conscientiously implemented Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law, fully implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Party Group, and the number of “temporarily reduced leave” supervision cases increased for the first time in five years. Specifically, the following work has been carried out:
(1) Adhere to political guidance and maintain fairness and justice in the execution of penalties. Adhere to the basic value pursuit of "handling every case with high quality and efficiency", guide procuratorial organs across the country to standardize the handling of "leave reduction and temporary" supervision cases, and respond to the concerns of the masses. Actively carry out special inspections on outstanding issues in law enforcement and justice to investigate and correct improper and illegal "temporary holiday reductions". Directly conduct special patrol inspections in key areas and key prisons to urge the comprehensive and accurate application of the "leave reduction and temporary suspension" system in accordance with the law.
(2) Continuously enrich supervision methods and achieve better case handling results. Consolidate and deepen the "station + tour" supervision model, give full play to the basic role of stationing, and simultaneously supervise the handling of "temporary leave reduction" cases; give full play to the "sword" role of patrol inspections, discover and solve the stubborn problems of "temporary leave reduction", and continuously enrich Supervision method. For example, the Procuratorate of Shanxi Province has developed a "temporary holiday reduction" supervision model. The front-end leverages to solve the problem of "whether reductions should be made and whether they should be released." ” and other job-related crimes. For another example, in order to solve the problem of formal court hearings, the Zhongshan District People's Procuratorate of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province and the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court explored the appearance system of the prison warden, chief judge, and chief prosecutor, introduced public lawyers to participate, and added cross-questioning sessions in the court hearings. Strengthen the defensibility of the trial.
(3) Strengthen collaboration and build positive interactive relationships. In December 2023, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Justice held their first work exchange meeting, taking deepening the supervision of "leave reduction and temporary suspension" as an important topic. The Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Justice jointly carried out a special inspection on the implementation of the "leave reduction and temporary leave" system. The Fifth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Prison Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Justice have established a regular consultation and data reporting system to jointly study and solve problems encountered in handling "leave reduction and temporary" cases. Procuratorates across the country have solved the problems of inconsistent ideological understanding and unsmooth coordination to a certain extent by jointly signing "leave reduction and temporary" documents with relevant law enforcement and judicial agencies, conducting in-person training, and joint special inspections.
(4) Adhere to multiple measures and actively solve practical problems. The first is to issue guiding cases for parole supervision. In view of the judicial status of long-term low parole application rate in practice, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued for the first time the 49th batch of guiding cases with the theme of parole supervision, clarifying the rules of legal application and promoting the application of the parole system in accordance with the law. Second, the Supreme People's Procuratorate directly organizes hearings on cases of temporary supervision outside prison to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of criminals in accordance with the law. The third is Daxing investigation and research. In-depth exploration of the problems in the handling of "reduced leave" cases, research on the impact of misdemeanor management on the handling of "reduced leave" cases, absorbing the latest research results of experts and scholars, and guiding judicial practice.
The Paper: What problems did discover during the process of supervising the "vacation reduction and temporary suspension" cases? How to ensure that problems are rectified in a timely manner?
Hou Yahui: The procuratorial organs, through full-process participation and full-process supervision, found that the following problems still exist in the handling of "temporary leave reduction" cases in various places:
(1) Insufficient law enforcement and judicial concepts Unite. The case-handling concepts of law enforcement and judicial agencies and different departments in some areas are not unified enough, and the scale of handling cases is inconsistent. For example, in some cases, specific circumstances have been taken into consideration and strict measures were taken when applying for commutation, but in the subsequent trial stage, such cases will be punished again. In strict terms, there have been cases where the range of sentence reduction has been reduced by "one knife at a time". Some case handlers believe that substantive review means being strict, and those who have not fulfilled property sentences will be deemed to have shown no repentance and will not be granted commutation or parole.
(2) The implementation of relevant normative documents on "temporary holiday reduction" needs to be strengthened. The "Opinions on Strengthening the Substantial Trial of Commutation and Parole Cases", "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Application of the Parole System in accordance with the Law" and "Opinions on Further Standardizing the Work of Temporary Service Outside Prison" systematically stipulate the relevant requirements for the handling of "reduction of leave" cases. , but there are still some problems in implementation. First, there is a certain gap between the actual case handling and the substantive review requirements. "Adhering to equal emphasis on subjective and objective reform performance" are the basic requirements of substantive review, but the problem of focusing on objective performance such as labor reform and supervision reform and neglecting subjective performance such as ideological reform still exists. Second, there are many problems in handling cases of temporary execution outside prison, such as fewer hospitals undertaking disease diagnosis and longer processing cycles. Third, the guarantee for judicial personnel to perform their duties needs to be detailed. Relevant documents stipulate the principle of exemption from liability for performing duties in accordance with the law. However, judging from the actual situation, it is still relatively common for prison officers to fear being held accountable and dare not take action.
(3) Difficulties and blocking points need to be continued to be tackled. First, there are not many effective measures for substantive review. The substantive review has put forward higher requirements for the handling of "leave reduction and temporary suspension" cases, and some areas have few methods and untrue measures. Second, it is difficult to accurately grasp the performance of criminal property sentences, which has become one of the reasons that restricts the normal development of commutation and parole work in some areas. Third, the assessment of "risk of re-offending" in parole cases lacks operability, and the basic institutional mechanisms on which assessment subjects, assessment standards, assessment conclusions, etc. rely are still weak.
In 2024, we will fully implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law, conscientiously implement the spirit of the Central Political and Legal Work Conference and the National Conference of General Prosecutors, deepen the implementation of relevant normative documents on “temporary holiday reduction”, and maintain fairness and justice in the execution of penalties. Study and formulate guidelines for handling cases of commutation and parole supervision and guidelines for public hearings for cases of parole and temporary supervision outside prison. Organize and carry out quality evaluation of "temporary leave reduction" supervision cases, and compile and publish typical cases of "temporary leave reduction" supervision. We should implement the work exchange and consultation mechanism with the judicial administrative department, deepen the "station + tour" procuratorial mechanism in prisons, actively promote the revision of prison laws, and promote the handling of "leave reduction and temporary" cases in accordance with the law.
Improved the quality and efficiency of prison inspection tours, with more than 14,000 problems found last year
The Paper News: has participated in and accepted "full coverage" of cross-provincial prison inspection tours from 2020 to 2022, how to optimize prisons Circuit inspection is particularly important. What work has the Supreme People's Procuratorate carried out to improve prison circuit inspection? What results have been achieved?
Hou Yahui: In 2023, procuratorial organs across the country conscientiously implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Supreme Procuratorate Party Group, continued to deepen the reform of the "station + tour" procuratorial mechanism, and the quality and effectiveness of prison roving inspections continued to improve. Procuratorates across the country have conducted more than 1,100 prison inspections and discovered more than 14,000 problems in prisons and other law enforcement and judicial agencies. They have discovered more than 2,300 problems with dispatched prosecutors, and nearly 90 people have been investigated through prison inspections. Specifically, the following work was carried out:
(1) Prison inspection tours continued to be carried out in depth. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has strengthened top-level design, issued guidelines and work manuals for prison inspection tours, guided provincial procuratorates to formulate a three-year work plan for prison inspection tours (2023-2025), and supervised localities to promote prison inspection tours in a planned and step-by-step manner.Procuratorial organs at all levels have carried out in-depth prison inspection tours in accordance with the idea of "touring wherever the problems are outstanding, and inspecting the types of problems that are outstanding", and the inspection tours have entered a new stage of development.
(2) The "station + tour" procuratorial mechanism continues to deepen. In accordance with the requirements of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Party Group that "stationing is the foundation, touring is the sword, and both aspects must be strengthened", we should consolidate the foundation of stationed procuratorial work, improve the quality and effectiveness of itinerant procuratorial work, further straighten out the relationship between stationed procuratorial work and itinerant procuratorial work, and distinguish between stationed procuratorial work and itinerant procuratorial work. The work contents and scope of responsibilities of circuit inspections neither overlap nor leave gaps, and we will consolidate and deepen the "station + tour" supervision model.
(3) Organize and carry out special inspection tours. In 2023, the Supreme People's Procuratorate directly organized special inspection tours of four prisons in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, focusing on supervising documents such as the "Guidance on Promoting the Application of the Parole System in accordance with the Law" and "Opinions on Further Standardizing the Work of Temporarily Serving Outside Prison" Implement the situation, focus on finding the causes, implement appropriate measures, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminals in accordance with the law.
(4) Carry out solid investigation and research. In order to further deepen the prison patrol inspection work, in accordance with the deployment requirements of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Party Group on the Daxing investigation and research, in May 2023, the Fifth Procuratorate Office organized a research activity on deepening the implementation of the "station + tour" procuratorial mechanism in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and invited the Ministry of Justice Prison The Administration Bureau, the Jiangsu Provincial Prison Administration Bureau, and relevant responsible comrades from some prisons in Jiangsu Province participated in the investigation and conducted in-depth research on how to give full play to the basic role of the stationed prosecutors and the "sharp sword" role of the patrol prosecutors.
Intensified inspection tours in detention centers, and found more than 400 clues to job-related crime cases last year
The Paper: In addition to inspection tours in prisons, how effective are the inspection tours in detention centers and community corrections?
Hou Yahui: In 2023, procuratorial organs across the country continued to deepen detention center inspection tours and focused on improving the quality and efficiency of inspection tours. A total of more than 2,000 detention center inspection tours were organized and more than 400 clues to job-related crime cases were discovered.
Procuratorates across the country have taken the following specific measures and achieved good results. First, the Supreme People's Procuratorate continues to directly organize cross-provincial inspection tours of detention centers to set a benchmark and serve as a demonstration. In April 2023, the Supreme People's Procuratorate directly organized inter-provincial cross-provincial inspection tours of relevant detention centers in Sichuan, Fujian, Guangxi, and Shandong. It adhered to a problem-oriented approach, actively explored the use of big data and other methods, and achieved remarkable results. The second is to scientifically coordinate the four patrol inspection methods, deeply integrate procuratorial investigations, and strive to discover the deep-seated problems behind supervision and law enforcement. The third is to systematically summarize the experience of patrol inspections in detention centers. The Supreme People's Procuratorate guides provincial procuratorates to formulate a three-year work plan for patrol inspections in detention centers (2023-2025). Focusing on the entire process and links of patrol inspections in detention centers, the prosecutor's office will focus on the key points, methods, and clues of prosecutorial inspections. In terms of discovery and other aspects, the "Guidelines for Patrol Inspection of Detention Centers" were formulated and the "Work Manual for Patrol Inspections of Detention Centers" was published to provide operational guidelines for various localities to deepen the patrol inspection of detention centers.
In terms of community correction roving inspections, from May to October 2023, the Supreme People's Procuratorate decided to carry out community correction roving inspection pilot work in 9 provinces, including Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Henan, Hunan, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Gansu, to further Release the advantages of the circuit procuratorial system and improve the community corrections procuratorial work system. During this period, 255 procuratorates in the pilot provinces conducted 413 community correction circuit inspections, involving 294 community correction institutions and 2,983 judicial offices. A total of more than 4,000 illegal correction notices and procuratorial recommendations were issued, and more than 130 clues to job-related crimes and violations of laws and disciplines were discovered. The pilot work has achieved the expected results.
Procuratorates across the country attach great importance to the community correction circuit inspection work, make careful arrangements and actively explore it. While ensuring that the pilot work achieves good results, they have also accumulated some good experiences and practices. The Sichuan Provincial People's Court and the Provincial Department of Justice signed the "Opinions on Cooperation and Cooperation of Circuit Procuratorates in Community Corrections" to smooth cooperation between prosecutors and prosecutors and promote information sharing. The Fujian Procuratorate has established a linkage mechanism for the investigation of duty-related crimes between circuit procuratorial work and judicial staff, giving full play to the "outpost" role of circuit procuratorial work.The Procuratorate of Hunan Province has deepened its digital empowerment, established a legal supervision model for the leakage, escape from supervision, custody and execution of community correction subjects, and the verification of clues about job-related crimes of judicial staff, so as to improve the quality and efficiency of community correction supervision. The procuratorial organs of the Yangtze River Delta Demonstration Zone (Shanghai Qingpu, Zhejiang Jiashan, and Jiangsu Wujiang) and the Shanghai-Suzhou procuratorial organs (Shanghai Jiading, Jiangsu Kunshan, and Taicang) jointly carried out roving inspections to promote the integration of community corrections roving inspections.
At the same time, some non-pilot areas are also actively carrying out community correction patrol inspections based on actual work conditions. For example, with the goal of escorting the Hangzhou Asian Games and maintaining overall social harmony and stability, the Zhejiang Procuratorate organized four inter-provincial cross-city cross-inspection inspections; the Guizhou Procuratorate explored the establishment of a supervision model for the behavior of community correction institutions that failed to handle community correction subjects in accordance with the law. Get good results.
Investigating and investigating more than 1,900 judicial personnel who engaged in duty-related crimes such as bending the law for personal gain and abusing their powers.
The Paper: Investigating and investigating duty-related crimes committed by judicial personnel is an important function of the procuratorial organs. How is this work currently carried out? What results have been achieved? What problems will you face during the investigation? How to solve?
Hou Yahui: In 2023, procuratorial organs across the country accurately grasped the correct positioning of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Party Group that "procuratorial investigation is an important function entrusted to procuratorial organs by law, an important means to severely punish judicial corruption and safeguard judicial fairness, and is also an important guarantee for strengthening legal supervision." , adhere to the new pattern of investigation work with the provincial People's Procuratorate as the leader, the municipal People's Procuratorate as the main body, and the grassroots People's Procuratorate as the basis, actively promote the integrated performance of duties, coordinated performance of duties, and pay close attention to investigation and handling of cases.
First, overcome difficulties and increase intensity in handling cases. Focusing on the issues of judicial injustice and judicial corruption that have been strongly reported by the masses, the investigation and handling of cases has been generally intensified. In 2023, procuratorial organs across the country filed more than 1,900 cases of duty-related crimes against judicial staff, with the number of cases filed increasing by more than 30% year-on-year. The Supreme People's Procuratorate took the lead in filing a case to investigate Yang Guangming, the former deputy director of the Public Security Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region, for falsifying the law for personal gain. This case was the "first case" that the Supreme People's Procuratorate directly filed for investigation since the revision of the Criminal Procedure Law in 2018. The number of people under investigation in five provinces including Liaoning, Henan, Zhejiang, Hunan and Shandong has reached more than 100. In response to the false lawsuits and related job-related crimes behind them, the Supreme Procuratorate Office guided the procuratorates in Liaoning, Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and other places to file cases and investigate more than 40 people in the "9·8" series of illegal adjudication cases in Sichuan. The Supreme People's Procuratorate also guided the procuratorates in Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan and other places to handle special cases and uncovered dozens of "protective umbrellas" involved in gangs and crimes. At the same time, we focused on making good use of the functions of handling mobile investigation cases given by the law, focusing on major criminal cases committed by state agency staff who took advantage of their powers, and guided all localities to activate their functions and advance steadily. A total of 110 mobile investigation cases were handled throughout the year, involving 176 people, and 176 people were involved. Better results.
The second is to continue to improve the quality and efficiency of investigation and handling of cases. We should conscientiously implement the requirements of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Party Group to “handle every case with high quality and efficiency” and strictly control the facts, evidence and legal application of the case to ensure that the case “can be established, prosecuted, judged and effective”. The Supreme People's Procuratorate guided various localities to establish early warning mechanisms for case quality and efficiency, compiled and distributed three batches of typical cases of procuratorial investigation, and organized the publication of the "Guidelines for the Investigation and Evidence Collection and Cases of Judicial Staff's Occupational Crime Investigation".
The third is to effectively strengthen internal and external connection and cooperation. Promote the establishment of a new investigation work mechanism that integrates internal vertical and horizontal integration and has strong external coordination. The Fifth Procuratorate, together with the relevant departments and bureaus of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, jointly carried out special inspections of law enforcement and judicial clues and regularized "breaking the net and opening umbrellas" work to crack down on gangs and evil. They jointly organized trial observations of cases involving false litigation and official crimes, and passed the inspection work of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Discover and promote the resolution of outstanding problems in prosecutorial investigations. Strengthen case jurisdiction coordination, clue transfer and case handling cooperation with the National Supervisory Commission, Ministry of Public Security and other units, and with the support of the State Financial Supervision Administration, promote the construction of an inquiry platform for accounts involved in the case.
The difficulties faced by judicial staff-related job-related crimes investigated by the procuratorial organs mainly include the following aspects: First, it is difficult to find clues.Since the criminal subjects are all those who have been engaged in judicial work for a long time and have strong anti-investigation capabilities, it is difficult to find clues. Second, it is difficult to detect. Judicial staff's dereliction of duty crimes are highly professional, relevant personnel can easily form offensive and defensive alliances, and criminal suspects are familiar with the rules of investigation and interrogation, making it difficult to break through the case through interrogation.
In response to these problems, the procuratorial organs will continue to do the following work: First, further strengthen external cooperation. Strengthen communication with discipline inspection and supervision agencies, public security agencies, judicial agencies, and judicial administrative agencies, establish and improve coordination and cooperation mechanisms in clue transfer, work reporting, information inquiry, etc., and strengthen cooperation in punishing judicial corruption.
The second is to continue to leverage the advantages of internal integration. Focus on strengthening collaboration among various departments within the procuratorial organs, continuously improve the two-way transfer feedback mechanism and diversion procedures for case clues, and unblock the sources of clues for job-related crime cases.
The third is to focus on the role of digital inspection. Organize the selection and promotion of big data models for prosecution, investigation, and case handling, and promote the application in all fields, entire chains, and entire processes. Use scientific and technological means such as data collision, comparison, analysis, and tracking to solve problems such as difficulty in finding clues that have long plagued prosecutorial and investigative work.
The fourth is to strengthen case guidance and team competency training. Focusing on key contents such as procuratorial integration, supervision and inspection connection, prosecution time limit, and digital-enabled investigation, we will summarize and develop typical cases of procuratorial investigation, train the backbone of investigation business, strive to guide and standardize investigation and case handling work in various places, and improve the quality and efficiency of investigation case handling.
