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| Japan Plans First New Prisons in 20 Years |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/26/2002 |
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Strapped by a growing prison population, Japan's Justice Ministry said recently it plans to build two new prisons, the nation's first in nearly 20 years. The prisons are expected to be completed by 2005, but locations have not yet been chosen, the ministry said. Japan's 189 prisons, jails and juvenile detention houses are filled past capacity with 65,500 inmates. And the number of new inmates is increasing each year - evidence of rising crime rates and a trend toward longer sentences. 'Some cells meant for six people are packed with up to eight,' ministry spokesman Naoki Koshiba said. 'That's why the ministry thought it necessary to build new facilities.' The number of inmates entering the nation's prisons has risen by about 4,000 people in the last three years, Koshiba said. Last year, 28,469 people were put behind bars. In tightly controlled Japanese prisons, riots are rare. And while several assaults against prison officers are reported every year, nobody has died since 1973, when an officer was killed. Officials are worried, however, that may change if overcrowding persists. Inmates in group cells eat, work and bathe together. But such proximity breeds friction, and the number of rule violations jumped to 6,033 in 2000 from 3,729 in 1996, according to the Justice Ministry. |
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