A telephone hotline service set up to assist people released from prison find employment has received more than 40 calls since it was launched on April 13, its founder Wang Jinyun said yesterday.

The hotline is the first of its kind in China.

"Most people feel that they are forgotten by society when they come out of prison," said Wang. "They are unable to communicate with society."

The psychological health of these people is usually ignored, he said.

"If such depression cannot be dealt with at the time, they might commit crimes again," he said. "The hotline aims to raise the awareness of society to help these people."

But it is difficult to help people with criminal backgrounds find employment, he said.

Wang's own experience prompted him to set up a service for those who had paid for their crimes and faced difficulties rebuilding their lives.

A university graduate, he set up his own company in Shenzhen and things were going well. But in November 2001 he was found guilty of selling three Hong Kong-Macao Multi-Entry Permits to a consulting company by the Shenzhen Luohu People's Court and was sentenced to two years in prison.

When he was released from prison in March 2003, he faced a completely different world. He was denied any job he applied for when people discovered that he had been in prison. In nearly four months, he changed jobs five times.

Feeling helpless and recognizing that there would be many people in his position in need of help, he began work on establishing an employment service for ex-prisoners.

Initially Wang found jobs for former prisoners through his own network of friends.

He set up a website in September 2003, www.yangguangxia.com, meaning "under the sunshine," which averages 1,000 hits a day.

To date, Wang has helped 73 people find jobs.

The companies which have taken former prisoners on are mainly from the hardware production and property management sectors. Some of the companies recruit people to work on assembly lines.

Wang said most of the people he assists are not well educated and are low skilled so it is difficult to find employment for them.

Currently, most employers assisting former prisoners via Wang's service are in Shenzhen.

Wang said he hopes more companies nationwide will participate in his programme.

Wang said he has reached agreements with 18 companies to provide help to his programme since February 18. He said more than 80 companies intend to form ties with the service.

In China, companies that recruit more than 40 percent of their staff from ex-prisoners are eligible for tax exemptions, Wang said. But he said no company is willing to take on such a large proportion of people with a criminal background.

"I will create a database of all the companies that show their willingness to help and carefully register the callers' skills so that I can find proper jobs for them," Wang said.

It is much easier for former prisoners to integrate into mainstream society if they work in different companies rather than all together in the same company, he said.

(China Daily April 17, 2006)