An influential Chinese government-run think tank is the latest to decry the country's controversial system of gulag-like "re-education-through-labor" camps, with a newly published report describing the system as outdated and in violation of judicial principles. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences…said abuses in the system had become increasingly apparent and had given rise to widespread public opposition. Police have used the system in the decades…to send thousands of Chinese—ranging from prostitutes and drugs addicts to political opponents—to harsh labor camps without trial or conviction by the judiciary…for up to four years. Human-rights activists and former detainees have said that forced labor was used in at least some camps and that many of those detained are subjected to physical abuse…the CASS report criticized what it described as concentrated police power to singlehandedly investigate and dole out sentences…