I see no problem with that...

Robbed and murdered a 56 year old woman for $129....

Conditions in Japanese prisons are 'harsh', beatings are routine and frequently lead to serious injury and death.


CONDITIONS AT PRISONS AND DETENTION FACILITIES:  Japanese prisons and detention facilities maintain internal order through a regime of very strict discipline.  American-citizen prisoners often complain of stark, austere living conditions and psychological isolation.  A prisoner can become eligible for parole only after serving about 60-70% of his/her sentence.  Early parole is not allowed for any reason--humanitarian, medical or otherwise.  Access to competent interpreters is not required at all times under Japanese criminal law.  More information is available at http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-7110a.html.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1148.html

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: ASA 22/009/2002 (Public)
News Service No: 211
20 November 2002


Japan: prison abuses must stop
Amnesty International called today on the Japanese authorities to initiate a thorough, public and independent investigation into the recent ill treatment of a 30 year old man, the death of another prisoner in May in Nagoya Prison, as well as prisoners' complaints regarding the use of force and ill-treatment by prison officials.

"All those responsible for such abuses should be brought to justice," Amnesty International stressed.

The organization urged the authorities to establish an independent body to inspect prisons, monitor the treatment of prisoners and general conditions of detention. The inspection body should be able to speak privately to prisoners, and report publicly on its findings. Doctors and psychiatrists should be members of this body.

" Japan should ensure that the rights of all prisoners and detainees - as guaranteed in international human rights standards to which Japan is a state party - are protected," Amnesty International said.

According to the organization penal facilities are overcrowded and secretive and abuse of prisoners is widespread.

Amnesty International also highlighted the lack of transparency regarding the internal regulations of penal facilities in Japan. Prison and detention centre governors are given wide discretionary powers to decide the rules of their institutions, and these are kept secret on grounds of maintaining "security".

All detention facilities in the country operate extremely strict disciplinary regimes with inmates forced to comply with arbitrary rules rigorously enforced by staff. Prisoners are often not allowed to talk with each other or even make eye contact. Punishment for flouting these rules includes being made to sit in the same position for hours at a time, sometimes over several months, and not being allowed to wash or exercise. Punishment also apply to all those who complain.

According to Amnesty International, some penal institutions still hold prisoners in a "protection cell" (hogobo) as means of punishment. Hogobo cells are special cells constructed for housing prisoners who are deemed to show certain aggravated signs of instability or vulnerability. Inmates are held in metal or leather handcuffs, which are kept on even while they eat. They are made to excrete through a hole cut in their pants (mataware pants).

"Such treatment is cruel, inhuman and degrading and must be stopped," the organization added.

While most prisons in Japan have cut down on punishments using the leather handcuffs, Nagoya Prison has reportedly increased their use from 53 cases last year to 148 this year. Amnesty International believes that the use of leather handcuffs and body belts in Japan has the same effect as a strait-jacket and must never be imposed as a punishment.

Amnesty International calls on the Japanese government to comply with international standards for the treatment of prisoners and to establish an independent mechanism for investigation of complaints. Amnesty International draws the government's attention to Article 33 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, as well as international standards set out in the "Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol)", the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

While Amnesty International has noted the 8 November arrest of five prison officials on charges of seriously injuring an inmate in Nagoya Prison, the organization is concerned that there are many more such cases throughout the country.

In 1997 and 1998 Amnesty International issued reports on Japan highlighting the ill-treatment of prisoners , the use of leather handcuffs which is likened to "medieval instruments of torture". In 1998 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights expressed concern about the frequent use of restrains or methods which amount to cruel treatment of prisoners, especially usage of leather handcuffs as punishment in Japan .

Background
Prosecutors reportedly arrested five Nagoya Prison officials on 8 November this year for using restraining devices: leather handcuffs and manacles to restrain the 30 year old prisoner on 25 September. As a result, the prisoner suffered internal bleeding, and required hospital treatment. Recent reports suggest the same type of restraining devices and physical violence by Nagoya Prison officials were used against the 49 year old prisoner who died in May.

Article 33 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, as well as international standards set out in the "Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Istanbul Protocol)", International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, prohibit ill-treatment of prisoners.


Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org

For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org

Quoted: So is it that you can't specify the part that backs up what you said from a link that you provided? And now it is down to choosing which to believe between the usembassy.gov and Amnesty International then? I suppose I'll give up then...

As  the ability to 'Google' seems a problem, maybe yes you should.

Actual Factual; the Japs are 'harsh' with prisoners, routinely have been, routinely are.

Japan prisons struggle with abuse
       Posted by Dan Sloan on Feb 11, 2003 (8679 reads)


Japanese prisons in spotlight after arrest of Nagoya guards for prisoner death. Fuchu Prison says its practices walk the line, while human rights groups blast punishments and conditions.
One could easily miss Japan's largest prison, which is nestled next to an elementary school and lies not far from a suburban Tokyo horse track.

With no watchtowers, barbed wire or visibly armed guards, the shadow over the community from Fuchu's grey walls appears to be minimal, and officials say no one has ever escaped.

But life behind bars in Fuchu and other correctional centres in Japan is facing greater scrutiny these days after prison guards in the city of Nagoya were charged with the death of a 49-year old inmate last year.

The three men allegedly tied a restraining belt so tightly around the chest of the man as to cause intestinal damage and eventual death.

No one at Fuchu has been charged for abusing prisoners, but a history of punishments that have been compared to ''medieval torture'' by some human rights groups has raised concerns.

Amnesty International says Japanese prisons are overcrowded, secretive and routinely abusive.

Citing excessive use of solitary confinement, leather handcuffs and body belts that are kept on during meals and even while defecating, Amnesty says Nagoya is not an exception.

''The military style has been introduced in the prisons and it's still surviving,'' said Makoto Teranaka, secretary-general of Amnesty International Japan.

Fuchu officials disagree.

''Assuming the facts reported on the Nagoya case are actually correct, I can say operations at Fuchu Prison are different,'' said Kazuharu Yoneya, a general affairs department official.

``We do things as they are meant to be done.''

CRIMINAL ABUSE

How Fuchu walks that line may be harder to define.

Current prison laws are almost 100 years old, while concern about the rights of the 69,000 prisoners has a much shorter history in a country known until recently for a low crime rate.

At Fuchu, uniformed guards still bark orders and snap salutes in a vestige of another era, while its 3,000 inmates -- both foreign and Japanese -- keep eyes cast downward.

The prison, which took its current name in 1935, has been used as a penal site since the 18th Century.

In feudal times, stone blocks were dropped on suspects to gain confessions.

That led to more torture and, often, public execution.

Those times are long over, but confession and conviction rates still top 90 percent in Japan and death sentences continue.

Fuchu does not carry out capital punishment, but some say an arbitrary interpretation of rules exacts its own pound of flesh.

Those rules, such as needing permission to wash one's face, are inculcated from entry. Deviation means punishment.

''I saw men dragged by my cell to be thrown into cuffs and 'the hole' at least once a week,'' said former inmate Kevin Mara, an American who spent some four years in Fuchu for drug possession.

Mara was himself put in solitary and bound in leather and metal handcuffs behind his back.

Now living back in the United States after release in 1997, Mara sued for inhumane treatment while still a prisoner and was awarded 600,000 yen ($5,000) last year -- less than 10 percent of of the 10 million yen he had sought.

Mara does not expect his case to change prison policies.

''I do not believe any major reforms will be made as a result,'' he said in an email from his home.

''The wall of secrecy surrounding everything about Japanese prisons is ... the biggest obstacle to reform,'' he said.

Yuichi Kaido, head of Tokyo's Center for Prisoners Rights, and also Mara's lawyer, says Fuchu is changing -- but slowly.

''Fuchu Prison was known to be the worst in terms of human rights in the past, but there have been no incidents like the (Nagoya) death linked to use of leather restraining devices.''

Yoneya, the Fuchu official, says such restraints were used seven times last year. Nagoya Prison had some 148 reported cases.

''However, if problems arise that require usage, we will employ the devices again,'' Yoneya said.

Officials say such moves keep order and protect inmates from themselves and each other.

Mara said fellow inmates were not his greatest fear.

''A child molester can be fairly safe from the wrath of other prisoners in Japanese prisons, but no prisoner is safe from the guards,'' he said.

BAD APPLES OR ROTTING TREE?

Those employed at Fuchu watch inmates during the day as they make shoes or auto parts under signs noting factory regulations.

Returning at dusk to a 22 square metre (237 sq ft) straw-matted cell, seven inmates sleep head to toe, sharing a sink, toilet and unheated quarters.

Officials admit sleeping is difficult, but after a 36 percent rise in the number of Fuchu inmates to 3,000 since 1999, they say their own hands are tied.

''Fuchu was designed for 2,600. As more are convicted, we can't turn them away saying 'We're full', can we?'' said Yoneya.

Crime rates in 2002 hit a post-War record as Japan's economic malaise worsened and joblessness soared.

Compared with the United States, where almost one percent of the population is incarcerated, the number of Japanese behind bars accounts for less than one-tenth of one percent.

But the prison population is expected to rise by 16 percent to 80,000 Japanese inmates in the next two years, experts say.

The Ministry of Justice says prisoner treatment aims for rehabilitation and resocialisation, but Fuchu officials say almost half of first-time Japanese inmates return.

''Usually at Fuchu, we see four- or five-time offenders,'' said Takeo Kumagaya, vice head of the prison.

Reflecting Japan's greying society, more than 15 percent of Fuchu's inmates are over 60 and some do not leave.

Kaido says Japan's prison system is in critical condition.

''The U.N. Commission on Human Rights said what they wanted four years ago and Japan prisons performed an operation as if for cancer,'' he said.

''They didn't manage to cut out all the cancer, and over time it has spread through the body of the corrections system.''

Originally published by Reuters on Feb 9,2003



http://www.fccj.or.jp/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=97&category=

Quoted: The Japs could put him to death... Believe it or not, they actually still hang people there.

Indeed they do, and you spend your 20+ years on Death Row in Solitary Confinement and are only told you are to be hanged a few hours before the event. Your family is not notified until after you are hanged.

Like I say, Japan is 'harsh' with it's prisoners.

ANdy