BEIJING - China has recalled 247 criminals who are serving sentences outside the jail back into prison, as they were found to have not met the requirement for out-of-prison serving any more.

Among them are 18 former officials at or above the level of a deputy department head, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) revealed on Sunday.

Some of these criminals were canceled the remission of serving terms out of prison for they had been found to have gained the serving mode by illegal means, such as offering bribery, according to the top procuratorate.

The SPP said that it uncovered 188 cases involving illegal grant of commutation, parole and serving sentence outside jail from March to the end of May. It is investigating 30 cases concerning duty-related crimes, involving 40 officials in the judical system.