Penal system of Japan

On confinement, prisoners are first classified according to gender, nationality, type of penalty, length of sentence, degree of criminality, and state of physical and mental health.

There was no unanimous agreement on the best way to implement moral education for prisoners, and different institutions began running their own individual programs.

Japanese recidivism was attributed mainly to the discretionary powers of police, prosecutors, and courts and to the tendency to seek alternative sentences for first offenders.

[8] One reason for the rise is a large increase in the number of elderly being convicted of crimes, with loneliness being cited as a major factor.

More lenient than the penal institutions, these facilities provide correctional education and regular schooling for delinquents under the age of twenty.

Volunteer probation officers also offer guidance and assistance to the ex-convict in assuming a law-abiding place in the community.

Although volunteers are sometimes criticized for being too old compared with their charges (more than 70 percent are retired and are age fifty-five or over) and thus unable to understand the problems their charges faced, most authorities believe that the volunteers are critically important in the nation's criminal justice system.

[12] Prisoners in Japan are also able to undertake factory work (e.g., assembling machinery, fabricating parts) for external manufacturers through contracted arrangements.

[14] Former US Marine Rodrico Harp, who was sentenced to seven years hard labor for his part in the infamous 1995 Okinawa rape incident, served his sentence at Kurihama prison near Yokosuka, and described fabricating car parts for Mazda and Nissan for a salary of less than $30 a month during his incarceration in an interview with Stars and Stripes after his release.

International criminal defense lawyer Michael Griffith is a well known critic of the practice, saying: "They don't have to recruit these workers.

"[15] In June 1994, Griffith made submissions to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives along with his client Christopher Lavinger, who previously served 16 months in Fuchū Prison for drug possession.

Lavinger described to the Committee his experiences of making an array of commercial products in the prison factory, including electronic components for SEGA, for a salary of less than twenty cents an hour.

[17] Amnesty International has cited Japan for abuse of inmates by guards for infractions of prison rules.

This abuse is in the form of beatings, solitary confinement, overcrowding, or "minor solitary confinement" (keiheikin), which forces inmates to be interned in tiny cells kneeling or crossed legged, and restrained with handcuffs for prolonged periods of time.

[23] In the article " 'Prison Libraries' in Japan: The Current Situation of Access to Books and Reading in Correctional Institutions" Kenichi Nakane talks about another form of prisoner neglect/abuse.

Nakane's article finds that there is a severe lack of reading materials available to people who are incarcerated in Japanese correctional facilities.

Nakane found that occasionally a limited number of reading materials are supplied, but they are out dated and inadequate.

The Chiba Prison received inmates without advanced criminal inclination and who do not have sentences longer than 10 years – e.g., murder without the possibility of repeating a crime again.

Under the PFI, prison facilities were built by the state but the operation and maintenance are made by private companies.