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Zhejiang Procuratorate today
On the morning of October 27, the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate held a press conference with the theme of "Less Arrest, Caution in Prosecution, and Promoting the Governance of The Source of Litigation", to report on the implementation of the work of the procuratorial organs in Zhejiang Province on the implementation of "less arrest and cautious prosecution and caution in detention", and answered questions from reporters on related work.
Kong Zhang, member of the party group and deputy chief procurator of the provincial procuratorate
In the first three quarters, "less arrest and cautious prosecution" were "how much"?
In recent years, the procuratorial organs of Zhejiang Province have taken the initiative to adapt to the new situation and new tasks of criminal justice work, adhered to an objective and fair stance and the judicial concept of "modesty, prudence and goodwill", conscientiously implemented the major deployment of the central and provincial party committees for the governance of litigation sources, and achieved positive results with the goal of building the "most powerful demonstration province of legal supervision".
● Earnestly promote the policy of catching fewer fish. In criminal proceedings, the statutory conditions for arrest are strictly grasped, and efforts are made to make non-custodial proceedings the norm in criminal proceedings. In the first three quarters, the province accepted 29,789 arrest cases and 43,583 people, and did not approve the arrest of 16,714 people according to law, with a non-arrest rate of 37.99%, ranking third in the country from high to low.
●Effectively implement the policy of litigation caution. Strictly grasp the substantive conditions and evidentiary standards for criminal cases to enter the trial procedure. Procuratorial organs are to apply non-prosecution methods to terminate proceedings as far as possible on the basis of the facts and circumstances of the case, as well as the specific circumstances of the criminal suspect and their attitude of admitting guilt and accepting punishment. In the first three quarters, the province accepted 75,622 cases of examination and prosecution 115896 people, and did not prosecute 25,180 people according to law, with a non-prosecution rate of 26.83%, ranking second in the country from high to low.
●Vigorously implement the policy of prudent detention. On the basis of fewer arrests, through the implementation of a review system for the necessity of detention, the procedural rights of detainees and their legally-designated representatives, close relatives, and defenders to apply for modification or lifting of compulsory measures are guaranteed, and the period of pre-litigation detention is shortened as much as possible and the rate of pre-litigation detention is reduced. In the first three quarters, the province's pre-litigation detention rate was 39.56%.
"Why" should we arrest less and prosecute cautiously?
The criminal justice policy of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and prudent detention" is in line with the needs of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity in the new era. As an important participant in the governance of litigation sources and a force to promote safeguards, the provincial procuratorate has successively issued the Opinions on Deeply Promoting the Governance of Litigation Sources and the Decision on Comprehensively Demonstrating the Superiority of the Socialist Procuratorial System with Chinese Characteristics and the Construction of an "Important Window" for High-level Service Guarantees, emphasizing the firm establishment of the judicial concept of "modesty, prudence, and goodwill" and "equal emphasis on crackdown and governance", and promoting the implementation of the criminal justice policy of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention". The criminal justice policy of "less arrest, more prosecution and caution" is a practical need under the trend of light punishment of criminal structure. The structure of criminal cases in our province has undergone tremendous changes, the proportion of heavy sentences has declined, and cases with sentences of less than three years in prison have accounted for more than 85% of the prosecution sentences, and cases with sentences of more than five years of fixed-term imprisonment account for only 8% of the prosecution sentences. The criminal justice policy of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention" is an inherent requirement for the progress of modern criminal justice civilization. It embodies the spirit of human rights protection and procedural justice in modern criminal justice. The Provincial Procuratorate has successively led the joint efforts of various political and legal units to issue normative documents such as the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Plea Leniency System in Criminal Cases in Zhejiang Province and the Opinions on Deepening procuratorial-legal cooperation to build a new type of procuratorial-legal relationship, jointly leading the progress of the level of social rule of law.
"How" to truly achieve less arrest and cautious prosecution?
The procuratorial organs of the province are guided by the realization of "win-win and win-win", unify judicial standards, optimize procedural convergence, and promote the implementation of the criminal justice policy of "less arrest, caution, prosecution and detention". Refine the criteria for no arrest and no prosecution. The Provincial Procuratorate, together with the Provincial Public Security Department and the Provincial Court, has successively made detailed provisions on the handling of minor criminal cases such as dangerous driving, theft, intentional injury, and gambling, and standardized the standards for no arrest and no prosecution. Actively establish mechanisms for diversion before arrest and litigation. The Provincial Procuratorate issued the "Rules for the Integrated Handling of Arrest and Prosecution of Criminal Cases by Procuratorial Organs in Zhejiang Province", requiring that the review of the necessity of prosecution and the necessity of detention be strengthened, a scientific evaluation system for arrest and prosecution cases be established, and the quality and efficiency of arrest and prosecution cases be improved. Actively carry out special activities to review the necessity of detention. Procuratorial organs throughout the province conducted a review of the necessity of detention, and after review, a total of 893 people were changed or released. Digital empowerment builds a guarantee mechanism of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention". The Hangzhou region has developed the "non-custodial code" as an intelligent supervision system for non-detainees, and expanded the application of non-custodial means through scientific and technological means such as out-of-office reminders, early warnings of violations, regular punch cards, and irregular spot checks. Up to now, the number of people applying the "non-bondage code" in Hangzhou has reached 19,138, and none of them have left the custody. The provincial procuratorate has incorporated the "non-custodial code" into the integrated case-handling system, promoted the application of large-scale scenarios for the supervision of non-detainees, and effectively reduced the detention rate. Executions are linked to do a good job in the second half of the article of "less arrest and cautious prosecution and cautious detention". Where it is necessary to give administrative punishments to perpetrators who have lawfully made non-prosecution dispositions, the procuratorial organs urge the relevant competent administrative organs to carry out enforcement in accordance with laws and regulations. From January 2020 to September 2021, procuratorial organs throughout the province issued 1,298 procuratorial recommendations on those that required administrative punishment, punishment, or confiscation of illegal gains. A total of 472 procuratorial suggestions on social governance were issued by the criminal prosecution lines of procuratorial organs in the province.
What else can we "do" for "less arrest and caution"?
Procuratorial organs will further establish a position on the rule of law, persist in procuratorial responsibility, use procuratorial wisdom, and promote the formation of a consensus of ideas and coordinated advancement by political and legal units and all sectors of society. Adhere to an objective and fair position, and achieve accurate protection and equal protection. Strengthen the protection of special groups such as minors, the elderly, and students in school in accordance with law, and implement equal protection for private enterprises. Persist in procuratorial responsibility, and actively explore modern and advanced criminal justice case-handling models. Increase the role of objective evidence and technical review in the conclusion of cases, give full play to the leading responsibility of procuratorates, promote the standardized and orderly implementation of the plea leniency system, and actively build a normalization mechanism for reviewing the necessity of detention. Use procuratorial wisdom to strengthen governance at the source. Give full play to the role of county-level spear adjustment centers, build and improve mechanisms for mediating contradictions in multiple societies, and effectively strengthen source prevention and control and source governance.
At the press conference, the publisher also responded to the issues that the media were concerned about one by one -
Question 1:
Zhejiang Legal Daily Xu Mei
What is the positive significance of the criminal justice policy of "less arrest, caution, and caution" for the protection of minors, a special subject? How is implementation promoted in specific work?
Cai Yongcheng: Adhering to the principle of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention" is not only conducive to avoiding cross-infection and re-offending of juveniles involved in crimes in the process of detention and imprisonment, but also minimizes the negative label effect and helps juveniles involved in crimes to rehabilitate and re-enter society. Procuratorial organs in Zhejiang Province have always attached great importance to the implementation of the policy of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention" in juvenile criminal cases, and where minors are suspected of minor criminal offenses such as theft, fraud, robbery, or injury, and are indeed first-time offenders, occasional offenders, or lured into committing crimes, fully use legal means such as non-approval of arrest, non-prosecution, and review of the necessity of detention, to educate, reform, and rescue them to the greatest extent possible. From January to September 2021, the procuratorial organs of the province successively made decisions not to approve the arrest and non-prosecution of 816 and 1255 juveniles involved in crimes, and made conditional non-prosecution decisions for 400 minors, with the non-arrest and non-prosecution rates of 57.5% and 49.4%, respectively, higher than the provincial criminal non-arrest and non-prosecution rates of 19.5 and 22.6 percentage points in the same period. While implementing the policy of leniency and leniency in criminal matters, attention is paid to increasing the intensity of education, correction, and discipline of juveniles involved in crimes. Through social investigation, psychological assessment, personality screening and other means, in-depth analysis of the causes of crimes and mistakes, according to the nature of different cases, the degree of mistakes, relying on the observation of nursing, helping and education bases, social work organizations, etc., actively explore hierarchical intervention mechanisms for juveniles involved in crimes, and a total of 473 help and education bases have been built in the province. 70 juvenile delinquents have been admitted to university after being inspected and helped to teach. Kong Zhang: For juvenile crimes, we actively implement the policy of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention", but for minors who are victims, we adhere to zero tolerance and crack down on them strictly and severely.
Question 2:
Zhejiang Workers Daily Hu Chong
Procuratorial organs attach great importance to the protection of private enterprises, and corporate compliance has also been a hot word in the past two years. How to promote corporate compliance in combination with the criminal justice policy of "less arrest, more prosecution and caution"?
Wang Xiafang: Zhejiang is a major province for the development of the private economy, and the provincial procuratorate took the lead in deploying a pilot project of criminal compliance with enterprise economic crimes at the level of provincial procuratorial organs in The country in October 2020, and will run the compliance work through the whole process of case review, arrest, review and prosecution, organically integrate with the judicial policy of less arrest and prudent prosecution and the mechanism of admitting guilt and accepting punishment, comprehensively assess whether the enterprises involved in the case meet the compliance conditions, have clear facts of the crime, the evidence is indeed sufficient, and voluntarily admit guilt and accept punishment for enterprise-related crimes. Promptly change the compulsory detention measures of the responsible person of the enterprise involved in the case, and at the same time guide the enterprise to carry out compliance construction, entrust a third-party organization to carry out compliance supervision, and make the compliance results the main reference for the procuratorial organs to handle cases in accordance with the law. Those who pass the inspection shall, as appropriate, not arrest or prosecute relevant personnel in accordance with the law, and submit a recommendation for probation and sentencing, ensuring that more judicial dividends are released for enterprises in the procuratorial link. Up to now, 34 cases involving enterprises have been complied with, and after public hearings, the enterprises involved in 6 cases have been dealt with without prosecution.
Question Three:
Qianjiang Evening News Sun Yan
As we all know, the judicial responsibility system requires "who handles the case and who decides, and who handles the case who is responsible", so in the process of implementing the "less arrest, careful prosecution and cautious detention", the procurator has decided to a certain extent whether the criminal suspect should be locked up and prosecuted in court. Can you tell us what procedures and methods are used to promote procurators to standardize the implementation of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention"?
He Dehui: The "decentralization" of the judicial responsibility system reform, the "centralization" of the reform of the integrated arrest and prosecution, and the "consultation" in the plea leniency system all mean that the risk of judicial responsibility and integrity of criminal prosecutors has increased sharply. To this end, we must make efforts in ideological and political education, routine supervision and management, and the building of systems and mechanisms. Fully carry out prosecution and defense consultations. The Provincial Procuratorate, together with the Provincial Department of Justice and the Provincial Lawyers Association, jointly issued the Opinions on Deepening Procuratorial-Legal Collaboration to Build a New Type of Procuratorial-Legal Relationship, building a mechanism of "procuratorial-legal collaboration in the whole process of arrest-prosecution-trial", giving full play to the positive role of lawyers in providing substantive legal assistance, equal sentencing consultation, and promoting the service of judgments and litigation, and gathering more consensus for the construction of rule of law in Zhejiang. Conduct public hearings in a sound manner. In accordance with the requirements of "due diligence at hearings", procuratorial organs throughout the province have focused on optimizing review methods, making good use of public reviews and detention hearings, and strengthening the nature of judicial review of arrests, so as to promote fairness through openness. From January 2020 to September 2021, procuratorial organs across the province held a total of 663 public hearings on non-arrest and no-prosecution. Strengthen internal supervision and restraint. Continuously improve the system of restricting and supervising the operation of procuratorial power. Earnestly implement the Supreme People's Procuratorate's "Measures for the Supervision and Management of People's Procuratorates' Handling of Plea Cases", strengthening the judicial responsibility system for post procurators and the supervision and control duties of department heads and chief procurators. At the same time, taking the opportunity of the education and rectification of the political and legal contingent, we will build an internal supervision and restraint system with clear powers and responsibilities, continuously improve the ability and level of strictly standardizing fair and civilized justice, and provide a strong disciplinary guarantee for the performance of leading responsibilities.
Kong Zhang: The right not to arrest and not to prosecute is an important part of the procuratorial power, just now Director He Dehui focused on the issue of procuratorial organs strengthening the internal supervision and restraint of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention", at the same time, we are also actively accepting external supervision and restraint to ensure that "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention" is lawful and appropriate. If the public security organs do not agree with the non-arrest and non-prosecution, they may submit a reconsideration and review; if the parties involved in the case do not agree with the non-arrest and non-prosecution, they may submit a complaint to supervise whether the exercise of our non-arrest and non-prosecution power is appropriate. Once the decision not to arrest or prosecute is made, especially the right not to sue is open, all sectors of society and the media can supervise. We are always on the road to the construction of the supervision and restraint mechanism of no arrest and no prosecution, especially the education and rectification of the political and legal contingent, which is also a favorable opportunity. The supervision and restraint of not catching and not prosecuting and the implementation of the policy of "less arrest, cautious prosecution and cautious detention" are dialectically unified and mutually reinforcing.