 Institutions similar to re @-@ education through labor facilities , but called " new life schools " or " loafers ' camps " , existed in the early 1950s , although they did not become official until the anti @-@ rightist campaigns in 1957 and 1958 . A report by Human Rights in China ( <unk> ) states that re @-@ education through labor was first used by the Communist Party of China in 1955 to punish counter @-@ revolutionaries , and in 1957 was officially adopted into law to be implemented by the Ministry of Public Security . The law allowed police to sentence both minor offenders and " counter @-@ revolutionaries " or " anti @-@ socialist elements " to incarceration in labor camps without the right to a judicial hearing or trial , and did not allow judicial review to take place until after the punishment was being enforced . In the beginning there were no limits to the length for which detainees could be sentenced , and it was not until 1979 that a maximum sentence of four years ( three years ' sentence plus one @-@ year extension ) was set . In 1983 , the management and implementation of the re @-@ education through labor system was passed from the Ministry of Public Security to the Ministry of Justice . 
