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| Japanese Prison Keeps Quiet About Assaults to 'Rehabilitate' Inmates |
| By Mainichi Shimbun |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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A senior warden at a medical prison in Aichi Prefecture 'disciplined' five inmates by hitting them with a bamboo stick, it was learned February 5. Prison authorities did not publicize the matter and allowed the chief warden at the Okazaki Medical Prison to retire early last summer after prosecutors decided not to press charges against him. Medical prison officials insisted that they kept the matter quiet at the request of the victims. 'We cannot excuse him for treating inmates like that,' a spokesman for the prison said. 'However, we did not make the matter public because all five victims preferred to keep a low profile and we agreed that it would help their rehabilitation.' The attacks occurred from December 2001 to February last year when the 53-year-old chief warden was overseeing inmates doing the laundry, according to officials of the Okazaki Medical Prison, which is a special unit to house mentally disturbed prisoners. When the five inmates made mistakes, the chief warden smacked their backside with a bamboo stick and sometimes grabbed them by their hair. 'It wasn't serious. I just casually did it to discipline them,' the warden said. However, the victims complained to authorities about their treatment and documents were sent to prosecutors, accusing him of assault by a special public officer. The Okazaki branch of the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office subsequently dropped the case because the assault was 'not serious.' Prison authorities suspended him for 10 days in July last year but he submitted his resignation before the punishment took effect. |
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