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 | Thursday, April 13, 2000, updated at 18:50(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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China Starts to Offer Counseling for PrisonersNiu Lishan dared not get on a bus, fearing that he would lose his self-control; and if he stole someone's purse, he would think that his own wallet had been stolen.Niu, 36, is serving a seven-year sentence as a hardened thief in Liangxiang Prison on the outskirts of Beijing, the fifth time he has been imprisoned. Things that are "as easy as my eyes" to others are insurmountable to Niu, who is, among other things, hot-tempered. He was bothered by severs psychological problems, as were many other prisoners. "It was a nightmare," said Niu, who was mired in desperation and once swallowed a piece of saw blade in an attempt to confront prison supervisors. Niu's life was entirely changed by Yang Dongsheng, a policeman who has a chrysanthemum-shaped mini-basket made of a plastic bottle on the table in his office. "It was made by Niu Lishan," said Yang, "I found the floral basket in the garbage and took it back to my office." Niu was shocked at the first sight of the basket when he was called to Yang's office for a talk one day. He was told it was a nice piece of craft work. The gap between the two shrank in a second. Yang Dongsheng decided to "suit the remedy to the case," and he appointed a lonely Niu to join the cheering squad, a self-abased Niu to learn computers, and an irascible Niu to practice calligraphy. "I finally won over myself, psychologically," said Niu, whose term of imprisonment was reduced by 18 months for his good conduct. Yang said that due to their environment, many prisoners are psychologically fragile. They are often freewheeling and easily lose their tempers. "To some extent, the prisoners are patients, for they show more disfigurement of character than others," he said, "and our duty is not only to keep them from escaping, but also to help them return to the mainstream in the future." Liu Guoyu, an official in charge of prisoners' education affairs with the Ministry of Justice, said that psychological problems occur when the prisoners face a strict and closed environment in prison and feel pressure from their families. She said that the security of the prison and reeducation would then be affected if prisoners do not receive the appropriate guidance to deal with their psychological problems. Western psychology was introduced to reeducate prisoners, as many committed crimes because of their psychological disturbances. Most prisons in Beijing have individual psychological records based on psychological tests given to the prisoners. "Some opinions of Western psychologists are scientific," Yang said. Starting in 1989, Chinese prisons officially began practicing psychology in educating prisoners, and nearly 700 psychological consultation rooms have been opened for prisoners over the past decade. About 60 percent of the prisons across the country offer psychological consultations, and people with a master's degree in psychology are invited as consultants by some prisons. "Many prison guards have received basic training in psychology, and have applied their knowledge in their daily work," said Liu Guoyu, "and it works well." The most important thing in building modern prisons is to modernize ideas about supervision, said Professor Luo Dahua with the China University of Political Science and Law. When psychologists abroad visit prisons, they mainly aim to treat apparent psychological diseases and to do scientific research, according to Luo, a senior expert on criminal psychology. Chinese psychologists aim at all the prisoners as a whole, and try to improve the psychological quality of the whole group by working on individual cases. The Ministry of Justice has adopted psychological rectification as a criterion when evaluating the performances of prison administrations since 1995. In Beijing Prison, each prisoner is responsible for taking care of one pot of fresh flowers and one pet fish. "These nice things in life should be able to arouse the prisoners' awareness to become healthy and kind," said Yang Di, head of the prison, pointing at blossoming plants and swimming gold fish. According to statistics, four out of every 100 prisoners released from Beijing Prison upon completion of a sentence commit crimes again, and the national figure ranges from six to eight out of 100. "The importance of psychological treatment should not be exaggerated," said Professor Luo, "it serves as an adjunct method beyond all other major reeducation methods." Prisons in China have seen quite a few experiences that have proved to be very effective, said Luo. Under the Ministry of Justice, Chinese experts on criminology and psychology are jointly working on a set of psychological gages focused on Chinese criminals, based on more than 8,000 questions and six years of research, to be introduced into prisons next year. "This decision means that all prisoners across the country will receive strict and regulated psychological treatment beginning next year," said Liu Guoyu.
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