Minister of Justice Wu Aiying yesterday said that punishment for crimes is incomplete without rehabilitation and called for more counseling in prisons.

"Prisons should offer inmates psychological programs to help their rehabilitation," the minister told the national prison work conference.

Prisons in the country started offering inmates psychological services in 1989, but the practice has only recently been implemented on a large scale.

Ministry figures show that prisons across the country offered 2.7 million counseling sessions to inmates last year. All prisoners received a psychological evaluation when first entering jail, and were also offered individualized consultations based on the evaluation.

Psychological programs can help prisoners maintain good mental health, and prevent them from turning to crime again, said Gao Zebo, a senior official from the ministry's prison administrative bureau.

"Inmates with psychological help often have a better chance at rehabilitation," he said.

He added that offering prisoners help also helps maintain order by reducing quarrels and physical fights in the prison.

Gou Zhixian, deputy director of Beijing's Dongcheng District Jail, said inmates receive a psychological evaluation at least once a month. In addition, the guards are also evaluated regularly and taught criminal psychology.

Yang Huaiyin, a guard, said his colleagues -- each of whom supervises about 30 inmates -- often feel pressure caused by fear that the prisoners might hurt themselves or fight. "We would be fired if any of them commits suicide," he said.

China has about 280,000 police officers working in jails, 85 percent of them college graduates. Each has a month of specialized training every three years, according to the ministry.

In addition, figures released yesterday show that 95.15 percent of the country's 1.5 million inmates received vocational training last year, 65.82 percent awarded certificates.

Additionally, more than 180,000 prisoners secured higher education diplomas last year.

Chinese prisons have 3,785 libraries with more than 8 million books, 1,587 multi-media classrooms, 1,257 amateur performance troupes, and 63,695 sports teams, according to the most recent figures.

(China Daily March 29, 2007)