UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal

This Article traces changes in the prison system in communist China and examines the relationship between the legal functions of prisons and the legitimation strategies of the state in different economic contexts. This Article finds that economic schemes and legitimation strategies are the two pivotal factors driving the prison system and shaping penal practices. In the early planned economy period, the Chinese government built its legitimacy on the revolutionary ideology to create a communist country, so the legal functions of the Chinese prison system focused on remodeling of prisoners through collective forced labor. Later, in the time of economic reform, legitimacy of the regime stemmed from its economic performance, so the legal function of the Chinese prison system shifted towards profit maximization, focusing all of its efforts on production. As the economic reform developed further, the Chinese government based its legitimacy on legal rules to accomplish its various goals, leading to the codification of the prison system to achieve the goals of scientization and socialization.