What does "reeducation through labor" mean?

Reform through labor is referred to as reform through labor.

It is a criminal management method used by socialist countries such as the People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It was introduced from the former Soviet Union in the 1950s. As for criminals sentenced to prison terms and capable of working, they are forced to remould themselves through labor and become new people. It is one of the important means to reform criminals.

A kind of slogans and slogans that often appear in prisons, using forced labor on inmates to achieve the purpose recognized by managers. Reeducation through labor is often confused with labor education both inside and outside China, and Chinese officials generally refer to it as "second labor". However, the two are completely different, with the latter being an administrative punishment system.

(The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which concluded on December 28, 2013, passed a decision on the abolition of legal provisions on reeducation through labor, which marked that the reeducation through labor system that had been in place for more than 50 years was abolished in accordance with the law.)

The American judiciary also allows prisoners to do forced work, but it is not called reform through labor.

Reform-through-labor agencies implement the policy of “combining punishment control with ideological reform, combining labor production with political education” and “reform first, production second” during the labor reform of criminals. Criminals are subject to military control and forced labor, and at the same time ideological and political education is provided, and revolutionary humanitarian treatment is given to them in life, so as to encourage them to change their evil ways, do good things, and start a new life.