The Ministry of Justice
has recruited seven psychologists in the first step to build an
experts bank providing advice on better management of
prisons.
Zhang Enyou, a
psychologist who is also vice president of the Central Institute
for Correctional Police, and six other experts are employed by the
ministry, the Legal Daily reported on Monday.
Chen Xunqiu, vice
minister of Justice, said his ministry is continuing to look for
law, penologists, education and medical experts for the
bank.
Statistics available
showed that by 2005 China had more than 1.8 million inmates, the
second largest prisoner population next to the United
States.
According to a
development program recently issued by the ministry, professionals
in law, penology, education, psychology, medical science,
information engineering and medicine should account for 70 percent
of the administrative staff of prisons and correctional
facilities.
Among them,
professionals in psychology should account for at least eight
percent.
The seven psychologists
will be asked to set up standards on correctional work in prisons
and help train warders, the newspaper said.
"The emphasis on the
psychological side is part of our efforts to introduce personalized
correctional work for different prisoners on the basis of their
psychological analyses," Chen said.
(Xinhua News Agency
December 17, 2007)