To much of the public in China, the very word "sentence" implies incarceration. It is a common mindset that law-abiding people are in the community and criminals are in prison.

For the most part, it's still true, but the situation is changing.

Thousands of offenders, rather than being locked up, are in the neighbourhoods, living and working with ordinary people.

Huang Deshan, who had spent more time in prison than outside, is one of them. He served his latest sentence in his community last year, in Beijing's downtown area.

Huang, 54, has been in prison four times. He left the last time in December 2004 after completing a nine-year imprisonment on a charge he said he'd prefer not to discuss. However, he still needed to serve an accessory punishment - one-year's deprivation of political rights. But this time, he paid that debt not behind bars, but in the community where he was born and grew up.

Throughout last year, Huang lived with his family much like ordinary people, worrying about price hikes and looking for better jobs.

There were two differences: Correction officers monitored his behaviour, and he needed to report his actions to the officers every month.

It's called "community correction," an alternative to incarceration that has long been common in Western countries but is new in China. The rehabilitation programme has been carried out in several selected regions on a trial basis for only two and a half years.

Five kinds of offenders are eligible for the programme: those under surveillance, on probation, on parole, on temporary leave from prison and those who have been released but are still deprived of their political rights.

Although the community-based correction seems more humane than incarceration, Huang did not accept it at first.

"Since I had already been released from prison, I thought I was free at last and did not want supervision any more," Huang said, recalling his first reaction when he heard he would be monitored again.

"In the first couple of days after being released, I had no place to live in, no ID card, no job, no income and nobody to talk with. Even my mother did not accept me. I was extremely depressed. At that time, I hated the idea of community correction as I believed freedom was the last thing I had. Since I had to be monitored, anyway, I would rather have been in jail again."

Huang said he refused to talk to correction officers at first but stayed at the judicial office on his street all the time, showing his resentment in silence.

"But later on, I found things were not as I assumed," Huang said. "Correction officers, including those at the local police station, the justice office and my neighbourhood committee, are not frosty guards with coloured spectacles. They really took my difficulties as their own and tried every means to help me solve them."

Before his nine-year prison term, Huang had lived with his mother. Ashamed of her son's wrongdoings, the 80-year-old woman refused to let Huang live with her when he was released.

"I had a mixed feeling of remorse and shame when thinking of my mother," Huang said. "I dared not face her, but I had no elsewhere to go. I knew the neighbourhood committee members tried and tried to persuade my mother to change her mind. They even visited my sister many times to get her help to sway my mother. At last, my mother agreed to let me move into the outer room of her house."

The local police station also helped Huang get his residence registration and ID card back so that he could apply for jobs right away. The neighbourhood committee members even helped with that, going to many places to look for job opportunities suitable for Huang.

"I was deeply touched by what the officers did for me," Huang said. "What moved me most was that I had even got a monthly subsidy of 300 yuan (US$37.50) since May. The judicial office applied for a minimum living allowance for me. They knew that it was quite hard for me, an illiterate offender, to find a job.

"I am not a fool. I know who sincerely treats me well. I really tasted the sweet benefits of community correction. The police station even invited me to join a volunteer group that helps keep community security. When I wear a red armband on my right arm and patrol on the street, I tell myself that I'm no longer an evildoer but a responsible citizen safeguarding public safety. It is a wonderful feeling being valued and trusted.

"In the past, few people cared about me or helped me after I had been released. But now so many people have offered their hands and offered their best wishes to me. I cannot let them down; otherwise, I would be even worse than a beast."

To Huang's joy, smiles have again appeared on Huang's mother's face. "He is much more self-disciplined than before and is willing to take other people's advice," she said.

They don't go back

Like Huang, several offenders involved in the community correction programme have also met with success.

The recidivism rate of people subjected to community correction in Beijing is 0.8 per cent, and in many other communities, the rate is zero, according to Yang Haitao, a leading official engaged in the programme for the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau.

Yang said that by November last year, Beijing had allowed 8,443 offenders to serve community-based alternatives since the programme started in July 2003. More than 3,700 of them have completed their sentences.

Ministry of Justice figures from 1992 show that the recidivism rate of ex-prisoners without community correction is about 8 per cent on the Chinese mainland. And the figure remained unchanged in the ensuing 12 years.

He also listed several other advantages of community correction. The programme provides less serious offenders with alternatives that let them gradually re-integrate into society and continue with some aspects of their lives, such as pursuing employment and educational opportunities. Family ties are also better maintained since offenders are living in the community rather than isolated in prison.

Furthermore, community correction avoids many of the negative effects of incarceration, including stigmatization, damage to physical and/or mental health and constant exposure to criminal peers, Yang added.

"Another critical strong point is that community alternatives are more cost-efficient than traditional incarceration," Yang said. His figures showed that it costs about 30,000 yuan (US$3,750) to house an inmate for one year in Beijing's prisons. By comparison, it costs only 400 yuan (US$50) a year to supervise an offender in his or her community. "Even taking other additional expenditures into consideration, the cost of community correction is still much lower than that of incarceration," Yang said.

Public acceptance not easy

However, despite the effectiveness and the humaneness of community correction, public opinion is a critical factor in evaluating the programme. The public might fear living with offenders in their midst and might blame the new policy if those under community correction commit crimes again.

Public fear has proved to be a major obstacle in many Western countries, and a recent poll in Beijing also shows that safety is the public's greatest concern on the subject of community correction. Horizon Group, a professional research company, conducted the survey in December last year for the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau. It interviewed 1,025 residents, 107 offenders and 20 correction officers throughout the city.

But the survey found that the more information the public have about the programme and the offender's circumstances, the more accepting they are of this alternative.

Among people who have offenders in their communities, more than 90 per cent accept the programme, and 67 per cent said the programme did not cause them any concern. About 24 per cent said they felt some fear at first but it subsided after a while.

But in communities where the programme is not being used, only 40 per cent say they would be willing to accept community correction without reserve. Another 30 per cent said they would accept it if they had enough information about the offenders and how the correction is carried out.

Where the programme is in effect, the survey found that about 85 per cent of the residents believed that community correction had achieved good results. They said offenders became more open and optimistic after serving in the programme, and the offenders are more willing to talk with ordinary people and take part in community service.

Wang Shun'an, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said a tolerant community culture is essential to the success of community correction. "Citizens must be helped to understand that effective community-based programmes are not simply a manifestation of a 'soft on crime' philosophy," he said. "Instead, they offer a combination of rehabilitation and punishment. They also provide a chance to return offenders to the community as productive members of society.

"Not all offenders need to be in jail. It has been proved effective to let less serious wrongdoers serve their sentences in the community, where they can continue to contribute to society and maintain family and social ties."

Community correction started in Europe and other Western countries toward the end of the 1970s. Now it is widely adopted in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and the United States, where at least 70 per cent of the criminals qualify for the programme.

China introduced community correction in July 2003 when the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice issued a joint circular concerning a community alternatives programme. At first, only six municipalities and provinces were involved. Last year, 12 other provinces joined in. At present, the applicable rate of community correction is about 25 per cent in these regions.

Though the extension of community correction still has a long way to go, stereotypical thinking such as "you do the crime, you do the time" is changing. More and more Chinese have become to realize that it is the public's best interest to keep offenders in their communities as much as possible, so that they can contribute.

'A hero among us'

Huang's neighbours have a deeper understanding of these benefits than most because he showed himself to be a hero. On the evening of November 16, Huang subdued a robber and saved two lives.

"It was nearly 11 o'clock. I was in bed when I heard cries outside," Huang recalled. "Through the window I saw a man holding a knife and stabbing two other people.

"I did not think a lot at that time. The only idea coming to my mind was to save the victims. 'They are two lives. I must do something.' "

Huang rushed out and found a man was seriously wounded, with part of his intestines oozing out of his body. "I shouted 'Stop!' to the robber. He froze for a second. I quickly threw myself on top of him, wrestled him to the ground and seized the knife from his hand."

Local police officers and an ambulance soon arrived. Huang helped the doctors send the two victims to the hospital.

A neighbour who witnessed Huang's efforts said she saw the knife was about 30 centimetres long and the robber was much stronger and taller than Huang.

"He is really terrific," Zhu Chunju said. "Even ordinary people usually turn a blind eye to such violent crimes. He is a hero among us."

(China Daily February 17, 2006)