Abstract: Objective To study the effect of expanding training on the mental health of the prisoners and to provide the references to the innovation of the mental health education for the prisoners.Methods Question-naire,observation,interview and mathematical statistic analysis were used.100 male and 100 female pris-oners from two prisons in East China were investigated by Symptom Checklist 90(SCL-90).Results Eight of the ten factors in SCL-90 showed the level of statistically significance,which includes obsessive-com-pulsive symptoms,interpersonal sensitivity,depression,anxiety,compulsion,hostility,psychoticism and others.Expanding training could be helpful to improve the mental health of the prisoners.Conclusion Expanding training can be used in mental health education of the prisoners.

Key words: criminal psychology, outward bound training, SCL-90