When word spread through social media, public outrage was so severe that the provincial authorities took the rare step of ordering her set free. Not satisfied, Ms. Tang turned around and sued the committee responsible for her original labor-camp sentence.

Reached by phone on Monday, Ms. Tang said she had mixed feelings about the decision, which included a spoken apology from the police chief of Yongzhou, not the written one she had demanded in her lawsuit. “At this point, I want to let bygones be bygones,” she said softly. “I want to spend more time with my daughter and to wipe all those bad things from my memory. I just want some peace and to have a good rest.”

In the months since the Chinese government issued a cryptic statement through the state news media, saying it would “advance reforms” of re-education through labor, legal experts have seen increasing signs that the system is on the way out. Several provinces have stopped issuing new sentences, and the media have been given relatively wide latitude to discuss the issue. In recent weeks, one of the country’s most notorious camps, Masanjia, in China’s northeast Liaoning Province, has been steadily releasing its remaining inmates, according to several former prisoners.

But some legal advocates are unsure whether the government will abolish the system or simply create a more publicly palatable creature that accomplishes the same goal. They note that the police are already funneling prostitutes and drug addicts to compulsory “rehabilitation centers” that provide little opportunity for appeal. Given the government’s determination to keep its plans under wraps, many experts have been left to speculate.

John Kamm, whose organization, Dui Hua Foundation, advocates for a criminal justice overhaul in China, said the decision by the Hunan court to recognize the injustice suffered by Ms. Tang was largely a concession to popular anger. “It’s public relations,” he said.

Like many legal experts, he has been encouraged by the signs of change, but said that without a comprehensive overhaul, China’s criminal justice system would continue to serve the government’s insistence on social stability. “If they want to get rid of R.T.L., they can have trials and, with 99 percent conviction rates, put people away for two to three years,” he said, using the initials for re-education through labor. “Even dissidents will tell you they prefer trials to R.T.L., but let’s not get carried away and celebrate yet.”