Zhao Xin, the first person in Beijing to receive community rectification six months ago, said the reform program has given him a new life as he won back his freedom.

Community rectification programs have been tried in six provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu Province, from early 2003. The programs aim to help criminals with minor offenses return to society through community services.

Zhao, 41, wounded a neighbor with a knife in disputes two years ago and was sentenced in 2003 to six months' of forced labor under detention with a six-month reprieve for intentional injury charges.

On July 1, 2003, Beijing started the trial of community rectification in 47 communities and townships. Zhao was included in the rectification programs.

"I thought I would have to be supervised by policemen, but actually I wasn't," Zhao said, recalling his first experience cleaning corridors of a residential building. However, some residents in communities still regard him as a dangerous person and did not trust him at first. The community policemen noticed that and explained Zhao's situation to the community residents.

Not long after, people began to greet Zhao with a smile and say "Hello! You are a volunteer, right?"

"Their amicability and concern relieved me," Zhao said.

During the rectification period, Zhao reported his thoughts and ideas to the police every month, and he also borrowed law books from them.

"I am very lucky as I did not lose my job even in community rectification," Zhao said. "I am now working in a foreign enterprise."

Wang Zuofu, a professor with Law School of People's University of China, said the program was "humane reform" for criminals with slight offenses.

"It reduces their chances of becoming worse," he said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Justice Zhang Fusen has called for assistance from society to help them.

"Efforts in prison alone are not enough to make a criminal into a law-abiding citizen," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2004)