Eight prisoners serving sentences in Guangyuan city were out of jail on probation on Tuesday benefiting from the provincial prison administrative bureau's move to reward prisoners in Sichuan for their good work in quake-relief efforts.

Jail terms of 436 prisoners have been reduced, 605 have received "merit points" and 1,189 have been praised for protecting state property or for rescuing survivors, the state-run China Daily said.

Courts across the Sichuan province have been moved for permission to either release such prisoners on probation or reduce their sentences, it said. The Bureau had said it could release on probation prisoners with short remaining sentences or cut the sentences of those with lone or physically challenged children, or old parents to take care of.

One of the first beneficiaries was a 43-year-old man surnamed Hong who was sentenced to death 17 years ago with a two-year suspended period for murder, which was however later changed to a jail term till 2011 because of good conduct.

After the massive quake struck, most of the inmates fled the prison building but Hong who was taking a nap on the fifth floor carried a physically challenged inmate to safety, unmindful of the danger to his life as the roof of the building could have collapsed any moment, a jail official said.