Reeducation through labor (laodong jiaoyang 劳动教养, abbreviated láojiào 劳教) is a system of administrative detentions in the People's Republic of China which is generally used to detain persons for minor crimes such as petty theft, prostitution, and illegal drug use for periods up to four years. It is distinct from laogai or "reform through labour" which denotes the Chinese prison system as a whole. Persons detained under laojiao are detained in facilities which are separate from the general prison system. However both systems involve penal labor. Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared Theft (also known as stealing) is in general, the wrongful taking of someone elses property without that persons willful consent. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services, such as oral sex or sexual intercourse, for money. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... Laogai (勞改; pinyin: láo găi), which means reform through labor, is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of prison labor in the Peoples Republic of China. ... Penal labour is a form of the unfree labour. ...

It has been criticized by human rights groups as not offering procedural guarantees for the accused and for being used to detain political dissidents such as leaders and members of Chinese house churches, and its abolition has been the focus of a number of human rights activists. Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A dissident is a person who actively opposes the established order. ... Chinese house churches are unregistered Christian churches in the Peoples Republic of China, which operate independently of the government_run Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and China Christian Council (CCC) for Protestant groups and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CCPA) and the Chinese Catholic Bishops Council (CCBC) for Catholics. ...

However, it has been argued that calls for abolition of reeducation through labor, while well intended, are misguided. It has been pointed out that the penalties in reeducation through labor are considerably less harsh than the penalties through the criminal justice system and that while the criminal system has more formal procedural guarantees these are not of much use to the accused in practice. In addition, it has been noted that political dissidents make up only 1 to 2 percent of reeducation through labour cases and even in these cases, the sentences meted out (typically one to two years) are considerably less harsh than for dissidents who are convicted under the regular criminal justice system (typically ten years or more). Furthermore, detention under laojiao does not carry the social stigma that a criminal conviction does. A social stigma is a stigma in the form of a distinctive characteristic in a person which can cause or be the result of marginalisation when used as an insult by individuals or groups. ...

Even the use of special detention facilities for reeducation through labor has its defenders. It has been pointed out that conditions in laojiao camps are much better than regular prisons and that mixing persons guilty of minor crimes with hardened criminals in the regular prison population would hardly be good for society or for the detainees themselves.

See also: human rights in the People's Republic of China, custody and repatriation The situation of human rights in the Peoples Republic of China has been criticized by various sources, including other nations - particularly Western democracies - as well as international organizations, as being poor in many respects. ... Custody and repatriation was an administrative procedure established in 1982 by which the police in the Peoples Republic of China could detain non-residents and return them to their place of origin. ...