China to Strengthen Grassroots Judicial Work for Social Stability

China will step up efforts to upgrade the professional level of grassroots judicial workers and train more legal mediators to help solve the ever-increasing social conflicts and disputes arising in the countryside, Justice Minister Gao Changli said Thursday.

Addressing a five-day national conference that began on Monday, Gao said that "judicial workers play an important part in cracking down on and preventing crime, and should be made diligent and clean and honest in their conduct."

A total of 10 million legal mediators have handled 130 million civil disputes over the past 20 years, preventing these disputes from escalating into criminal cases, the minister said. Gao announced a series of ambitious plans today for strengthening administration over judicial work.

At the top of his agenda is the establishment of a "National Data System on Ex-Inmates" covering everyone who has been released from prison after serving their terms, including those from " education-through-labor camps."

"The new network is expected to further reduce the recidivist rate in China," Gao said. In addition, a comprehensive social network should be improved to assign ex-inmates and reformed juvenile delinquents to proper jobs and positions, and provide help and assistance.

To maintain social justice, Gao said that special centers for legal aid to the poor should be set up in all the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities by the end of this year, and two-thirds of all counties should be equipped with such centers. In two or three years, each county and town with a people 's court should be accompanied by at least one legal aid center, he added.

Legal service hotlines with the uniform number "148" have been opened across the nation, and their services will be further improved in the years to come, the minister pledged. The services of judicial administrative bodies have been extended to towns and villages, and according to statistics, there are 2,640 county-level judicial administrative bodies in the country, under which there are more than 3,000 law firms and 2,793 notary offices and one million legal mediation centers.



Please visit People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/