Japan's Prisons for the Elderly
PaPaPeng
The Japanese reporter has written a very interesting story on Japan's
ageing population. It is apparent that the Japanese treat their
elderly criminals very well. One wonders what crime could they have
committed to land them in jail for extended (?) sentences. What I
read in this story is that their elderly have found a way to get free
accommodation, food, structured activity, attention from well paid and
trained staff and good health care. Its even better than going to a
nursing home, wipe out whatever savings one has and risk being
neglected or abused. Or worse have no fnancial resources and have to
live in the streets.
As Japan ages, prisons adapt to going gray
By Norimitsu Onishi Published: November 3, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/03/asia/03japan.php
ONOMICHI, Japan: In the prison's brightly lighted workroom here, 47
inmates sat behind long tables and quietly performed their chores.
Grasping some pink checkered fabric, No. 303 unhurriedly started
making a pair of knit slippers. Some seats away, No. 335 gently
threaded gray envelopes with white string. Up front, No. 229 was
gluing together corrugated cardboard pads, and his stack rose
steadily, though slowly.
Not the hard prison labor you might expect, but at an average age of
74 — with the oldest at 88 — these were not typical inmates. Work was
kept light, and if any felt ill, they could lie down nearby on a
tatami mat. Prescription drugs, wheeled walkers and a stretcher were
also kept on hand, as well as a box of "discreet, underwearlike" adult
diapers.
"In our workshop for the elderly, we definitely receive preferential
treatment," said one 76-year-old, who works six hours a day, or two
hours less than younger inmates with more strenuous jobs. "In general,
you know, the conditions are much, much more severe."
With one of the world's most rapidly aging societies, Japan is
confronting a sharp increase in the number of older criminals and
prisoners. Japanese 65 and over now make up the fastest-growing group
of criminals.
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The prison population is aging in the United States, too, but that is
a result mostly of long mandatory sentences and restrictive parole
practices. In Japan, by contrast, the rise is being driven by crime,
mostly nonviolent.
From 2000 to 2006, the number of older inmates soared by 160 percent,
to 46,637, from 17,942, according to Japan's National Police Agency.
Shoplifting accounted for 54 percent of the total in 2006 and petty
theft for 23 percent.
As a result, penitentiaries are struggling to adapt environments
designed with the young in mind to a lawbreaking population that is
fragile physically and often mentally.
If work programs, toilets, cafeteria menus and health services are
changing, so are smaller things in the prison landscape. Older
convicts are exempted from marching in formation in some prisons. On
New Year's Day, rice cakes are cut into tiny pieces so they won't
become stuck in aging throats.
Here in western Japan, Onomichi Prison, a small facility with a
special ward for older inmates, who make up 22 percent of the prison's
population, is in the vanguard in dealing with this new problem. But
recent visits to two large penitentiaries, one maximum security and
the other minimum, underscored the more deep-rooted problems
associated with the increase in older prisoners.
A recent Justice Ministry report said that older people were
increasingly turning to crime out of poverty and isolation, suggesting
a breakdown in traditional family and community ties. With nowhere
else to go, more of the older inmates serve out their full sentences,
instead of being released on parole like younger prisoners. What is
more, recidivism is higher among the older inmates.
"There are some elderly who are afraid of going back into society,"
said Takashi Hayashi, vice director of Onomichi Prison. "If they stay
in prison, everything's taken care of. There are examples of elderly
who've left prison, used up what money they had, then were arrested
after shoplifting at a convenience store. They'd made up their minds
to go back to prison."
While the main reason behind the explosion in graying lawbreakers is
the rapid aging of Japan's population, the rates have far outpaced the
increase of older people in the general population.
Between 2000 and 2006, while the total population of Japanese 60 and
over rose by 17 percent, inmates of the same age group swelled by 87
percent. In the country's 74 prisons, the proportion of older inmates
rose to 12.3 percent in 2006 from 9.3 percent in 2000, while the share
of those in their 20s declined and in other age groups remained flat.
Japan's rates are much higher than those in the West. America's
prisons — where those 55 years and over are categorized as elderly —
are also graying. But such prisoners accounted for only 4.6 percent of
the total prison population in the United States in 2005, according to
the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.
It is not clear how much the graying of the population has added to
the costs of running Japan's prisons. But officials said health care
costs presented a particular burden.
In Fuchu Prison in suburban Tokyo, a maximum-security facility and the
country's largest and oldest prison, four nurses look after older
inmates with ailments like high blood pressure and diabetes, and with
psychological problems. An increasing number with more serious
illnesses are hospitalized outside the prison, requiring guards, said
Kenji Sawada, an official at Fuchu, where 17 percent of the inmates
are 60 and over.
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