The issue of prisoners' human rights of prisoners is an important part of the entire human rights realm. The rights for anyone who lives in the society are not abstract, but stipulated and protected by the Constitution and laws of a country. For prisoners who are deprived of personal freedom, the exercises of some of their rights are restrained or banned. In the special environment of the prisons, it is also passive to realize their rights. So, to protect their human rights, we should mainly protect their rights stipulated by law. The protection of prisoners' human rights in China is strengthened and developed in the process of constantly improving China's legal system construction.

I. Legal System Construction and Development of Prisoners' Human Rights Protection

With the social development and progress, China increasingly strengthens its protection of prisoners' human rights as various laws, rules and regulations have been increasingly improved. We can say that the protection of prisoners' human rights has been constantly enriched, developed and improved in accordance with the history of China's prisons. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Government attaches great importance to the humane treatments to criminals so that they can reform themselves with hopes. In 1954, not long after the founding of the new China, the State Council adopted Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Reform Through Labor, one of the first laws and regulations formulated in new China, which attached great importance to the protection of prisoners' rights. It detailed the living and sanitation standards and food and clothing standards of prisoners. It also stipulated that the lifestyle of prisoners from ethnic minorities should be respected and the minor criminals should be treated differently.

In 1982, Ministry of Public Security issued the Detailed Regulations on the Management and Education in Prisons and Teams of Reform Through Labor. This was formulated according to related stipulations of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, Criminal Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China and Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Reform Through Labor, the spirit of the eighth national conference on the work of reform through labor, the experience of the management and education work in the past and new circumstances of changes of criminals so as to detail and systemize the stipulations on prisoners' rights. According to Section 3 of Chapter 3 of the Detailed Regulations, in the process of criminals serving the prison sentences, the government shall protect their rights to appeal and defense; they shall be free from torture, mistreatment and humiliation and their legal private properties shall not be infringed; they have the right to put forward reasonable suggestions on the work of management and education, labor and production and life and sanitation; in case where the cadres and police violate the regulations by torturing and mistreating criminals, taking bribes and practicing favoritism and fraudulence, prisoners have the right to disclose and accuse to the leaders of the people's procuratorates, people's courts, people's government and other related departments, as well as other legal rights.

More importantly, after the reform and opening up, China has made a prominent progress in the human rights realm: establishing the important position of the concept of human rights in China's social and political life. Especially in the late 1980s, China introduced the concept of human rights to the socialism law and theory of state. Against the background, China will attach more importance to and constantly improve the protection of prisoners' human rights. After releasing its first whitepaper on human rights in 1991, China has issued a series of whitepapers on the progress of China's human rights to showcase its protection and progress in human rights protection. A special group of the social members, prisoners' rights are also protected. In 1992, the Chinese Government specially issued the whitepaper of Conditions of Reforming Criminals in China to systematically introduce the basic principles and development achievements of China reforming criminals with facts, and the rights criminals should enjoy in the process of serving the prison sentences.

in 1994 was a major event in the process of legalization of China's prison work with great significance. Prison Law legalizes the successful experience of China's prison work in the past decades. The most prominent part is that it extensively stipulates the legal rights of prisoners. Prison Law consists of 78 clauses, including 33 clauses directly or indirectly involving the rights of criminals. According to Item 1 of Article 7 of the law, "Human dignity of a prisoner shall not be humiliated, his personal safety, lawful properties, and rights to defense, petition, complaint and accusation as well as other rights which have not been deprived of or restricted according to law shall not be violated." This is the declarative programmatic stipulation on prisoners' rights in the General Provisions of the Prison Law. Meanwhile, the law also stipulates the detailed contents of prisoners' basic rights in related clauses and items. These contents can be summarized into two aspects: protecting prisoners' human rights (negative aspect) and providing necessary conditions to realize prisoners' human rights (positive aspect).

On March 14, 2004, the Second Session of the 10th National People's Congress adopted Amendment to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and included "the state respects and protect human rights" into China's fundamental law. This is an important development of China's socialism constitutional government, indicating a new level of China's socialism democracy and legal system construction. In April 2009, China issued National Human Rights Action (2009-2010) to clarify the working goals and detailed measures of the Chinese Government in promoting and protecting human rights in the coming two years. It stipulates a human rights education program, and focuses on the launch of human rights education and trainings on the public servants, including those working in prisons. China's second human rights action plan stresses that human rights education should be included in the training programs for public servants.

China's laws such as Constitution, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law and Prison Law stipulate prisoners' legal rights from different angles. The civil rights and legal position in the Constitution are the fundamental legal basis for prisoners to enjoy human rights. Of course, prisoners' human right protection is mainly based on domestic laws and regulations while following or consulting international laws and regulations. Currently, China has joined a series of international human rights conventions. Joining each of them means China should shoulder corresponding international legal obligation.

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