Japan: surveillance and old age

Akaike Kazumasa. The first reason lies in the legal system. In Japan, the prosecutor can issue a charge with a lot more discretion than in France. The reform of the criminal proceedings of 1948 removed the role of the examining magistrate from the Japanese system and transferred the work to the public prosecutor. Only about 6.8% of suspects arrested by police are charged by a prosecutor. Fewer suspects appear in court, which could lead to a prison sentence. The public prosecutors say they carefully examine which suspects should be imprisoned, based on the threat they pose. However, if we consider the high number of older prisoners who are jailed not because they are dangerous but because of repeat minor offences, this argument is not valid.

Furthermore, Japan does not have alternatives for imprisonment, such as electronic surveillance or any other sentencing system like France. In some circumstances, the court can suspend the issuing of a sentence and place the convict on probation.

Probation for adults is only applied as a complementary measure in the case of a suspended sentence.

Probation can last one to five years. Of the 52,567 people sentenced to prison in 2017, 32,267 (61.5%) were suspended while 3,034 were placed on probation.

AK. The Japanese are not informed about prisons or the judicial system in general. You often hear the same kind of critiques as in France, whereas both systems are completely different.

Firstly, we can say that the Japanese media is very interested in crimes and minor news items. They talk about it a lot when, in fact, the rate of criminality here is less than that of most European countries. The media communicates every detail regarding any serious, peculiar or scandalous crime. They follow cases very closely until suspects get arrested. But what happens next does not matter to them.

There is less media coverage on the proceedings and actual judgement and, therefore, little chance of discovering the striking dysfunctions of the prison system.

I would say the Japanese media covers a lot of minor news items just like the French media; however, the latter are generally more sensitive to the rights of prisoners.

Due to the lack of contact between society and the prison environment, the Japanese end up being quite indifferent since they are not well informed. Few are the volunteers hired by the Ministry of Legal Affairs or outsiders, like chaplains who come to the prison. Most of the teachers in prison are either retired or active prison staff. In other words, education in prison is managed by the prison director.

The majority of nurses are recruited among the trained prison caregivers with careers as warders. Doctors are not employed by hospitals but by the Ministry of Legal Affairs. Consultations and treatment are carried out by doctors working for the prison under the supervision of the prison director.

There is an element of “human autarky” present in the policies of the prison administration, which makes all the services depend on the prison staff. I think it is very difficult to introduce the French policy of “decompartmentalization” to the present system here.

And then comes prison work. Japan has two types of custodial sentences: imprisonment and confinement. In 2017, 99% of convicts were sentenced to imprisonment. However, Japanese criminal law states that the prison director must “give them work as prescribed”. “Prescribed work” is always considered mandatory. The 1995 reform of criminal law abolished the use of the term “forced labour” as was established by the penal law of 1908. It was replaced by “prescribed prison work”. In principle, it covers prison work and, in certain cases, some pro-reintegration activities.

Whatever the case may be, prison work is considered part of the prison sentence and is very important to the prison administration.

The new criminal law of 2005 states the reasons for disciplinary measure as “individual sabotages without valuable reason, prison works and reintegration activities.” Of the total sanctions totalling 42,058, in 2017, more than 30% was regarding this motive of “sabotaging”. In 2017, 45,968 prisoners worked every day. The average salary was very low, about 4,340 yen (35 Euros) monthly.

AK. With this article “De plus en plus de Japonais âgés se font arrêter pour profiter de la prison” (in French), the world is getting to know the actual conditions experienced by elderly prisoners. Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and a relatively insignificant prison population. But this population is ageing fast. A quarter of it are over the age of 65. That will be the case for 40% in 2050.
Delinquency among older Japanese, especially women, is a phenomenon that appeared about a decade ago and has worsened. According to the White paper on criminality, published in December 2018, 21.1% of arrestees in 2017 were over the age of 65, whereas in 2000, this age group represented only 5.8% of the prison population. Elderly offenders are arrested for petty theft. A minority say they prefer to be in prison than to live a life below the poverty line or in solitude¹.

The strong presence of elderly prisoners in Japan shows the fading of Airain’s law stating that living conditions in prisons should be worse or more miserable than outside. This law used to be the basis of Japanese prison policies.

This phenomenon raises questions about the meaning of punishment in the country: for some, prison becomes a retirement home and their imprisonment, a way of making the state pay for it, thereby compensating the insufficiency of retirement.

Lots of elderly women live below the poverty line because of low retirement funds after their husbands’ death. They are supposedly higher than the number of men seeking to be imprisoned. In 2017, one out of five prisoners were over the age of 65. Upon release, they commit repeat offences more than men. In general, a quarter of former prisoners over 65 re-offend within the two years following their release. Article 57 of the criminal law states that re-offenders are more severely punished and the sentence is longer. The phenomenon will only get worse.

Then, elderly prisoners spend their old age in confinement. They have all the symptoms: hard of hearing, slow to carry out orders; some are incontinent, others have issues with mobility and sometimes need to be fed and washed. This creates extra work for the warders. Prisons have started arranging for units reserved for elderly prisoners. Things are changing. Mechanisms are being put in place so that very elderly offenders are not imprisoned but placed in institutions of social protection and retirement homes instead. Such measures are also taken during their release from prison. However, they remain insufficient.