Page "Law enforcement in the People's Republic of China" Paragraph 8

Police sometimes hold individuals without granting access to family members or lawyers, and their trials are sometimes conducted in secret.

Detained criminal suspects, defendants, their legal representatives, and close relatives are entitled to apply for bail, but, in practice, few suspects are released pending trial.

The reeducation-through-labor system allows nonjudicial panels of police and local civil authorities to sentence individuals to up to three years in prison-like facilities.

It has been reported that some detainees, usually political activists or dissidents, have been incarcerated in high-security psychiatric facilities for the criminally insane.

Police and prosecutorial officials have been accused of ignoring due process provisions of the law and constitution.