China to expand use of itinerant procurators for prison inspection

BEIJING - The use of itinerant procurators for inspection of punishment enforcement and correctional activities will be extended to prisons nationwide starting July 1, 2019, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Thursday.

This comes after itinerant procurators for prison inspection were put for a trial run from May 2018 to May 2019 in addition to the existing prison-based procurators.

By combining the use of itinerant procurators and prison-based procurators, the move eyes improved inspection over education and correction of inmates at prisons with an aim to help transform criminals into law-abiding citizens, according to officials at a press conference.

The use of the itinerant procurators' group, of which members are changing and come from various places and organizations, in combination with regular and random cross inspections, can help identify and solve long-neglected or deep-seeded problems in prison correctional activities, said Wang Shouan, head of the fifth procuratorial division of the SPP.