“I'm Gonna Always Make Everything OK for Them”: Rehabilitative Veneer, Stability Maintenance, and Offenders' Perceptions of Procedural (In)Justice Within Chinese Community Corrections

Abstract

The recent establishment of Chinese Community Corrections (CCC) has been heralded as a lenient turn in China's criminal policy, and a welfarist approach to promoting the well-being of offenders through state-sponsored rehabilitation services. Despite growing research on the operational meaning and functions of the CCC, the effect of offenders' participation in rehabilitation on their satisfaction with justice has yet to be adequately explored. Based on ethnographic observations and interviews with offenders in community corrections, and guided by the procedural justice framework, this study examines the lived experiences of offenders and the impact of their participation in rehabilitation on their perceptions of justice. The analysis reveals that offenders experience a process of what we call “manufacturing compliance,” navigating complex bureaucratic requirements derived from the state's priority of maintaining stability. This calls into question the presumed therapeutic effect of offenders' involvement in the CCC and further suggests an unintended negative impact of unmet expectations. The implications of these findings for the administration of the CCC as a genuine channel of penal welfare are discussed.