The Failure of Ganhua Education: Revisiting Relational-Cultural Theory in China’s Female Prisons

Abstract

Ganhua education has been viewed by some scholars as holding a critical position in the correctional system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), for achieving its primary target of imprisonment: rehabilitation. This article aims to redress this argument. Drawing on interviews undertaken with 30 female parolees/ex-prisoners and 10 prison officers, this article argues that the Ganhua education in prison, which is strongly imprinted with the key concept of Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) that “connection promotes growth,” is ineffective and is unable to empower women to grow, change, and consequently open to rehabilitation at selected female prisons. This article suggests that the RCT is theoretically problematic in producing a “new person,” for the reason of its unawareness of contextualized culture, values, and situations in prison.

Keywords:

• China’s female prisons
• ganhua education
• pragmatic Confucianism
• rehabilitation
• relational-cultural theory

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

1 The philosophy of rehabilitation is clearly stated in Article 3 of the China Prison Law (CPL, 1994[2012]) that a prison shall, with regard to prisoners, implement the principle of “combining punishment with reform and combining education with labor, to transform them into law-abiding citizens.”

2 In the PRC, adult prisons are classified into only two categories: male prisons and female prisons. There is no further classification of prisons according to different security levels (Wu, 2016).

3 Mu is a Chinese measure of land area; 1 mu equals about 7,176 square feet.

4 As said by an officer in the Department of Justice, it is increasingly difficult for prisoners, especially those who commit serious violent crimes, to be released on parole, regardless of their gender.

5 This strategy is usually applied in research that deals with vulnerable respondents, aiming to assure confidentiality, lower participants’ concern, and establish a trusting relationship between the author and participants (see Convery & Moore, 2006).

6 Obedience to father before marriage, to husband after marriage, and to son after husband’s death (see Shen & Winlow, 2014).

7 The policy was implemented around 2009 at PA and PB, which dictates that, each week, women shall work for only 5 days, leaving 1 day for education reform and 1 day for rest.

8 Jiashu gaizao (家属改造) means to reform by family persuasion and support; jiasu gaizao (加速改造) means to speed up and achieve a rehabilitation target ahead of schedule. In the Chinese language, these two terms have a similar pronunciation.

9 In Chinese: 监狱计分考核罪犯工作规定, issued by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

10 In Chinese: X省罪犯考核奖惩实施办法, issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the Province X, with reference to the MOJ’s regulations regarding the JKS.

11 Prisoners at PA and PB are categorized into one of three levels based on their behavior and earned scores: strict, general, and lenient. The different supervision levels are associated with different treatment.

12 In Chinese: 经世致用, meaning to put what is learned into practice.

13 Statistics by Howard League for Penal Reform (2016, August 31). [Online]. Retrieved July 21, 2021, from https://howardleague.org/news/8896/

14 In Chinese: 分管民警, meaning “Officer in Charge.”