The first prison hospital built in Tibet will soon be opened to inmates. The hospital is designed to improve medical conditions in Tibet's three prisons.

　　The four-storeyed hospital, occupying 1.3 hectares just outside the Tibet Regional Prison, has medical, surgical, gynecological, infectious diseases, Tibetan medicine and general-care wards. It has cost 15 million yuan (US.8 million).

　　Some 20 doctors have been recruited to work in the hospital. They will give round-the-clock care to inmates, says Ngoizhub, deputy director of the hospital. The regional government has purchased up-to-date medical apparatuses for the hospital that has in stock 161 kinds of Tibetan medicine and over 400 kinds of western medicine. It has also bought several ambulances for carrying inmate patients between the hospital and prisons.

　　The Tibet Regional Prison, Lhasa Prison and Bomi Prison have their own clinics capable of handling common ailments. However, they are too small and basic to deal with complicated health problems. As a result, the regional government decided to build a prison hospital.

　　When the hospital opens, seriously ill inmates will be sent there, Ngoizhub says. Medical treatment for inmates of the Tibet Regional Prison will be particularly convenient for that the hospital is next door to the prison.

　　Doctors and nurses due to work at the hospital are becoming familiar with their work.

　　The conditions for Chinese prisoners have witnessed a gigantic improvement in diet, medical treatment, technical training and exchange with the outside world.

　　In the First Women's Prison of south China's Yunnan Province, there are seven wards, each of which has been equipped with a TV room and a reading room. Prisoners can take books back to their cells. To spice up prisoners' captive life, the prison authorities organize an artsgroupscomposed of prisoners who give shows regularly for their fellow inmates.

　　Although the annual per capita allowance for prisoners is less than 2,400 yuan(US) in east China, they are well fed with eggs, meat and vegetables served in dining halls every day.

　　A prison breakfast menu for the second week of July featured Chinese rice pudding, rice-flour noodles mixed with fried salted jam, sliced noodles and steamed bread.

　　"We used to make sure that prisoners in China had enough to eat ? now we are sure that their diets are nutritious," said Jin Yongsheng, head of the life and sanitation department of the Fifth Prison in east China's Zhejiang Province. Prisoners' everyday intake of calories, protein and fat are determined by the Life and Health Management Software, which was jointly developed by the prison and Zhejiang University.

　　According to Jin, this prison also tracks prisoners' health through computer systems.

　　A medical report for each prisoner is filed monthly, so that illnesses are closely monitored. "Should any individual situation become serious, we will contact hospitals outside and provide timely treatment," Jin said.

　　Psychological counseling services have also been launched in quite a number of prisons in China. Professional help is available for anger management. In Beijing Prison, every ward is decorated with ornamental fish and potted plants and every fish and potted plant is under an inmate's care.

　　All this is meant to make the wards more peaceful and to help the prisoners build healthy and virtuous inner lives since a psychological therapy was introduced in Chinese jails in 1989.

　　To provide more opportunities for communication with family and friends, telephone "love hotlines" have been put to use in prisons throughout the nation.

　　From July 2001, east China's Baoshan Prison offered the nation's first batch of videophones for prisoners, which allow face-to-face time with family members and friends at a distance.

　　To help prisoners survive the fierce competition they are likely to face after release, prisons in China actively cooperate with local bureaus of both education and labor to train inmates with practical technical skills.