There's plenty of little social and bureaucratic annoyances that can be levied on someone until they show up. Don't go to re-education? You're not allowed to buy liquor till you do, or you're suspended from hookup apps, or your money's no good at festivals and sports events. Non-carceral, non-fine penalties that are still enough of a social annoyance to be worth biting the bullet and taking care of.
Prison is for executives. Reeducation is for people.
The issues with re-education are:
There's plenty of little social and bureaucratic annoyances that can be levied on someone until they show up. Don't go to re-education? You're not allowed to buy liquor till you do, or you're suspended from hookup apps, or your money's no good at festivals and sports events. Non-carceral, non-fine penalties that are still enough of a social annoyance to be worth biting the bullet and taking care of.