Extended program

According to the Ministry of Justice, China's 680 prisons contain more than 1.7 million inmates and employ 320,000 guards.

Wang Jinyi, director of the Prison Management Bureau at the ministry, said the Xiqing model will be extended to a pilot program in 20 prisons in 17 provinces and regions, including Beijing and the provinces of Jiangsu and Guangdong. The program will focus on innovations designed to improve the quality and professionalism of educational reform, and the lessons learned will then be used in penal institutions nationwide.

He said the priority is to "reform the prisoners so they absorb traditional culture and gain practical skills while serving their sentences to aid their reintegration into society and help them to refrain from committing new crimes".

In addition to tuition about language and the law, prisons will provide classes about traditional culture, including study of The Analects of Confucius, A Dream of Red Mansions, one of the four "classic" novels, and an ancient text called Discipline Regulation. Cultural and sports competitions will also be held on a regular basis.

Moreover, lecturers and experts from universities and educational institutes will be invited to deliver lectures about social issues and psychology.

Inmates will also have the opportunity to learn practical skills, including how to cook and how to cut and treat hair to prepare them for a smooth re-entry to society, he said.

According to the ministry, 99 percent of prisoners who took culture classes passed examinations last year, and 80 percent earned vocational skill certificates.

In the past 10 years, prisons nationwide have provided a number of educational reform programs for more than 6 million inmates, and more than 190,000 prisoners have gained a college diploma or higher qualification.

Change of focus

In previous years, the penal system mainly focused on the security of the nation's prisons and used a range of safety and technical measures to prevent convicts from escaping, Wang said.

He noted that there have been very few prison breaks in recent years, and Ministry of Justice data show that since 2013, there have been fewer than six prison breaks a year, compared with hundreds in the 1980s and '90s.

"As a result, we are attaching great importance to classifying convicts based on their crimes, and using targeted educational measures to transform them," he said.

Li Guifang, a member of the All China Lawyers Association, said all prisoners are different; some may have been caught while committing their first crime while others may be serial offenders. Moreover, all convicts have differing degrees of subjective malignancy, so they pose different threats to society.

"Effective educational measures will encourage inmates to actively confess to their crimes and become aware of the social harm and serious consequences of their offenses. That will help them cooperate to master new skills and prepare for a new life outside prison," he said.

Li Wenzheng, who became a prison guard in 1983, said improvements in security mean penal institutes can focus on reforming prisoners rather than simply locking them up.

"Technological developments and modern security systems mean prison breaks are almost impossible nowadays. That means we can devote more energy to educating the prisoners, helping them confess their crimes sincerely and transforming themselves into new people," the 55-year-old said.

"In today's prison system, guards are required to behave like parents and teachers, providing prisoners with care and attention."

Wang, from the ministry, said that in future prisons will focus on training warders, and there are plans to enroll more graduates, especially psychology and education majors, who will help educate the inmates and help them become law-abiding citizens.