Objective To have knowledge about the relationship between resilience and mental health of prisoners so as to provide scientific basis for improving the mental health of prisoners in an effective way.Method Mental status of 215 prisoners was evaluated using SCL-90 Self-rating symptom scale and resilience scale.Results Prisoners whose scores on one or more factors in SCL-90 were ≥3 accounted for 38.0%.Overall scores of SCL-90 and score on each factor were higher than national norm for normal adults

and scores on resilience were significantly lower than national norm for youth

and the differences were statistically significant（p<0.01）.Each factor of resilience for prisoners had significantly negative correlation with mental health problems（p<0.01）;retrospective analysis of resilience and total mean score of SCL-90 showed that tenacity

stress coping

control and adaptation entered the regression equation and could explain 63.4% of variance of resilience and total mean score on mental health.Conclusion Levels of mental health and each factor of resilience in prisoners are significantly lower than the control norm group

and tenacity

stress coping

control and adaptation of resilience are significant predictors of mental health.Improving the mental elasticity of prisoners is important for maintaining their mental health level.