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| Japan's Prisons Overflowing |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/12/2001 |
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Normally, prisoners in Japan do their time six to a cell. Now, it's seven, sometimes eight, sometimes as many as officers can find a bed for. Assaults are up. Officials are worried that riots could be next. The Japanese are used to living in crowded cities, and squeezing onto subways packed to overflowing. But now a country proud of its low crime rate is facing an unexpected problem - overflowing prisons. 'It's a major crisis,' said Justice Ministry official Kaname Mizukami. 'Our prospects are bleak - we cannot hope for any change in the current trend in the coming years.' For the first time in several decades, Japan's 74 government-run prisons and jails are operating over their capacity of 64,300 - evidence of rising crime rates and a trend toward longer sentences. Mizukami said the system is filled to 108 percent of its capacity. The most crowded facility is Fumoto women's prison in southern Japan, at 129 percent. Last year, 29,000 new inmates were imprisoned, 4,000 more than were released; the average prison term was 26.4 months, four months longer than in 1991. Experts see larger social issues in play. As society has aged and recession has hit older workers particularly hard, the number of inmates in Tokyo's Fuchu Prison who are over 60 has gone to 13 percent of the total from 4.7 percent 20 years ago. To ease the shortage of cells, Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama has promised extra money to increase capacity by 2,000. But Akira Suehiro, of the Center for Prisoners' Rights, Japan, a private human rights group, says overcrowding will not be easily resolved. 'Life inside Japanese prisons is already severe and stressful,' Suehiro said. 'Further overcrowding could lead to rights violations.' |
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