Japan by the Japanese/Chapter 25.2

The supreme supervision of prison administration in Japan is vested in the Minister of Justice, who has the central prisons under his immediate control, while the local prisons are under the control of the local prefect under his discretion. The work of prison supervision is looked after by a special prison bureau in the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the Minister. At present this bureau consists of a director, three prison superintendents, fifteen clerks, and nine minor employés. The bureau is divided into three departments: First, the Department of Prison Management; second, the Department of Prison Income and Expenses; and, third, the Department of ​Prison Statistics. Over each department is placed a prison superintendent, and the work of the bureau is divided amongst the three divisions. Each department has its own special work, the division being made as follows: The first department deals with everything pertaining to pardons, parole rehabilitation, leave to dwell outside granted to criminals condemned to transportation, temporary release from police surveillance, the execution of the death sentence, and other general prison business. The second department has charge of all the questions of prison labour and the revenue and expenditure of the prisons. The third department has charge of the drawing up of all the statistical reports relating to prisons and prisoners. All plans for the building or repairing of prisons are drawn up by competent architects in the architectural section of the Bureau of General Affairs in the Ministry of Justice.

There are at present 139 prisons in Japan. Of these, 4 are central prisons, and 2 are branch institutions of these; 51 are local prisons, with 82 branch institutions. The central prisons and their branches are used for the confinement of male criminals sentenced under the present Penal Code with penal servitude, and for those sentenced to imprisonment for life under the old laws in force before the promulgation of the new Penal Code. The local prisons and their branches are used for the imprisonment of male and female criminals sentenced to confinement, detention, imprisonment or attachment, and of female criminals sentenced to penal servitude. Both the central and local prisons have special governors appointed to supervise the criminals and all affairs connected with them. In the branch institutions the place of these governors is taken by specially-appointed sub-governors. The sub-governors of the branch institutions of local prisons are appointed from among the prison clerks without altering the official status of these, whereas in the branch institutions of the central prisons the sub-governors are specially-appointed officials.

Under this system there are fifty-five governors specially commissioned for the administration of central and local prisons, and two governors for the administration of the branch institutions of the central prisons. Besides these there are in all 11,995 prison functionaries, divided as follows: In connection with the central prisons there are 88 clerks and chief warders, 15 physicians, 1,071 warders, 15 chaplains, 65 instructors, and 120 employés in the labour section—in all 1,377 persons. In connection with the local prisons there are 734 clerks and chief warders, 15 interpreters, 7,037 warders, 249 instructors and warders, 227 physicians, 160 chaplains, 433 matrons for female prisoners, 633 gaolers, 390 labour instructors, 35 honorary ​prison physicians, 28 honorary chaplains, and 626 employés—in all 10,676 persons.

The allotment of warders, matrons, and gaolers to the various prisons is governed largely by the number of prisoners and also by the nature of the buildings. The general rule is for there to be 75 warders for every 500 male prisoners, and this proportion is maintained by the addition or withdrawal of 5 warders for every 50 male prisoners admitted or discharged. Matrons are employed in the proportion of 5 for each 25 or less female prisoners, one being added or withdrawn on the increase or decrease of the female prisoners by 25. Eight gaolers are distributed in the proportion of 10 to every 500 male prisoners, one gaoler being added or withdrawn for every change of 100 prisoners.

The salaries of the prison officials naturally vary considerably, according to rank and local conditions. Governors receive from 600 yen to 1,800 yen (£60 to £180) annually inclusive. The salary of prison clerks and chief warders varies from 15 yen to 75 yen (£1 10s. to £7 10s.) per month inclusive, while that of warders runs from 9 yen to 25 yen (18s. to 50s.) a month inclusive. Matrons receive from 6 yen to 15 yen (12s. to 30s.) a month, while gaolers can earn from 5 yen to 15.50 yen (10s. to 31s.) a month.

For long the prisons used to be supported by local taxation, and there was thus a great lack of uniformity in their administration. It was often difficult to obtain the consent of the local authorities to rebuild prisons when the necessary expenditure would have rendered still more great the increase in the local taxes, already heavily burdened to provide for the making of suitable improvements in engineering work, education and sanitary affairs. Thus it came about that many of the prison buildings were in a very tumble-down and bad condition. In 1900 the Government transferred the support of the prisons from the local authorities to the Central Treasury, as being the only way to remedy the condition of affairs. Shortly after this change the central authorities began the reconstruction of the Kojibashi Prison in Tokyo, and prisons in the prefectures of Chiba, Nara, Ishikawa, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima. For this an annual expenditure of 400,000 yen for six years was voted, and it is intended to continue the scheme of reconstruction in other localities, should the financial conditions permit, until finally all the prisons throughout Japan shall have been put completely in order. According to the above plan of reconstruction the new prisons in Nara and Nagasaki will be of brick, and that in Kagoshima partly of wood and partly of stone. In Chiba the new prison is to be of wood and brick; in Tokyo the Kojibashi prison will be of wood, as will also be the ​prison in Ishikawa. In all these new prisons a mixed system of separation and association is to be employed. The separate confinement cells will be one-third of the total number of cells in the prisons, the remaining two-thirds being still founded on the principle of the associate cell system. The windows will be specially large, to allow of plenty of air and light in all the cells.

Practically all the old prisons are constructed of wood, and are arranged on the associate cell system. The separate cell system is especially adapted for foreign criminals, and these are provided with clothes, beds, and other articles to which they are accustomed, while special attention is paid to their habits, so that they may not suffer from the different prison customs of Japan.

In 1889 a school was established for the training of prison officials. Unfortunately, however, unavoidable circumstances necessitated the temporary abandonment of the project, and the school was closed shortly after the first body of students had completed the fixed course of study. The great difficulty experienced by the Government in finding competent officers to carry out satisfactorily the improvements contemplated again prompted the establishment of a special training school for prison officials, and in 1900 a second attempt was made at Tokyo, which school is now rendering valuable assistance in the interests of education.

The students are chosen by local prefects from prison clerks and chief warders in their respective prefectures, and their term of study is one year. The course includes a general outline of jurisprudence, constitutional law, the Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedures, penalogy, prison hygiene, criminology, statistics, the Civil Code, and military drill. The figures given show that the students vary in number each year, fluctuating between eighty and one hundred; those graduating in February, 1903, numbered seventy-one.

While the training of upper prison officials has been the main object of these schools, yet the Government has not neglected the education of those occupying subordinate positions in the prisons. Before entering upon the performance of their duties the latter must, for more than two months after their appointment, undergo practical training in the prisons. Examinations are held at convenient intervals during this term of probation, and the minor employés under training are not allowed to retain the posts to which they have been appointed unless they successfully pass the final examination at the end of the term. As a rule, the training officers are selected from those prison clerks and chief warders who have previously passed through the entire course of special training.

​The subjects of training of the minor prison officials are as follows:

The population of the prisons varies considerably from year to year, but since 1899 the general tendency has been towards a decrease. The numerical relation between prisoners and the general population in Japan is maintained at the ratio of 3½ to 1,000. On the one hand, the number of felons and misdemeanants is annually decreasing, while, on the other hand, contraveners are gradually increasing in number.^[1]

Pardon is proposed by the Public Procurator of the Court which delivered judgment, or by the prison governor, to the ​Minister of Justice, at the same time setting forth the good behaviour and wretched circumstances of the condemned criminal in a form of petition to the Emperor for His Majesty’s mercy. This petition is presented in writing for His Majesty’s sanction by the Minister of Justice, who also gives his own view of the matter.

In 1897 there were 28 criminals pardoned; in 1898, 33; in 1899, 19; in 1900, 70; and in 1901, 92.

Parole or libération préparatoire is proposed by the prison governor to the Minister of Justice, at the same time setting forth specific conditions worthy of his attention on behalf of the condemned for felony or misdemeanour who have served three-fourths of the sentence imposed, and who have, by good conduct and careful observance of prison discipline, shown a disposition to live more worthily. These specific circumstances are considered by the Minister of Justice, and, if judged satisfactory, he then accords to the prisoners in question the petitioned benefit of conditional liberation by an administrative measure, at the same time putting them under special police surveillance during the remainder of the sentence. The following list gives the number of conditionally liberated criminals for the five years subsequent to 1896:

In 1897 there were 321 criminals conditionally liberated; in 1898, 338; in 1899, 398; in 1900, 346; and in 1901, 323.

Our long experience has taught us that capital punishment is the necessary penalty for the following crimes: murder, manslaughter, robbery with violence, homicide, or wounds inflicted by children or descendants against their fathers or mothers, or grandfathers and mothers, and arson.

The death penalty has been inflicted much oftener in cases of murder, manslaughter, and robbery with violence than in the case of the other crimes above enumerated, but in general the number of all these crimes has of late gradually decreased. The following number of persons have suffered capital punishment for the five years following 1896:

In 1897 there were 21 criminals executed; in 1898, 29; in 1899, 39; in 1900, 34; and in 1901, 206.

In accordance with the prison regulations now in force, medals are granted by prison governors as rewards to any criminals in their custody who have shown their amendment by carefully observing prison rules, properly conducting themselves, and labouring diligently since their incarceration. The medal can only be awarded three times to an individual, this restriction having the two-fold effect of, first, forming a sort of standard usually followed by governors in proposing pardons or conditional liberation; and, second, it is of assistance in determining various forms of lenient treatment, according to ​the number of medals earned. Such lenient treatment is accorded in the following ways:

Disciplinary punishments to be inflicted upon criminal inmates of prisons are divided into three kinds: (1) Solitary confinement in a windowed cell; (2) the reduction of food supply; and (3) solitary confinement in a dark room. The first is a solitary confinement for two days and nights or less in a cell removed from ordinary cells or prison functionaries’ offices, where the confined prisoner is required to work during working hours. The second is the reduction for a week or less of the supply of food to one-half or a third of the ordinary quantity. The third and last is disciplinary punishment, confining the prisoner alone for five days and nights or less in a dark room, where he is only supplied with half or a third of his usual quantity of food, and is not allowed to have a bed or its furniture. When juvenile offenders of less than sixteen years, or non-condemned children kept in the special establishments of disciplinary correction, have infracted the provisions of disciplinary prison regulations, they are punished by solitary confinement or the reduction of their food-supply, according to the degree of their infraction. This solitary confinement involves their living alone in a room for seventeen days and nights or less, and the reduction in their food-supply consists in lessening it for at least three days to one-half or one-third of its usual quantity.

As a result of recent reforms in prison administration, the attention of the Government has been specially drawn to the ​sanitary conditions prevailing in prisons. In this connection the authorities are now making every effort in their power for the maintenance of the health of the prisoners. All prisons are provided with adequate accommodation for the free admittance of light and air. Every possible precaution is taken against infection by contagious diseases, and cleanliness is warmly encouraged. Inmates suspected of having infectious diseases are carefully isolated and intercourse prohibited between them and healthy individuals. All accused persons, condemned criminals without obligatory labour, and offenders are required to walk or take other exercise in grounds laid out for that purpose for more than half an hour daily. Bathing in general is, of course, permitted every fifth day in summer and every tenth day in winter, though a distinction is made between prisoners where the nature of their respective labour or other circumstances demands. For foreign criminals there are provided special individual bath-tubs best suited to the custom of their country. There is a marked difference shown between the food given native and foreign prisoners, the former being supplied with a mixture of rice and wheat boiled together in the proportion of four-tenths and six-tenths. Not more than three go^[2] are given to one person at a meal, though the amount is regulated according to the labour or other circumstances of the prisoner, but all necessary food is provided from good, nutritious materials, according to its cost, at the rate of 3 sen or less for each person. Much better food is supplied to foreign prisoners, according to their taste. The following report shows the amount of illness and number of deaths among the prisoners for the five years from 1896 to 1900 inclusive:

In most cases the object of imposing obligatory labour upon prisoners, except in some cases of condemnation without labour, is to give them careful training in useful labour, and to encourage diligence, so that on their discharge from the prison at the end of their term of imprisonment they will find less difficulty in obtaining employment. The Government has therefore provided various kinds of useful work which is not injurious ​to health. The labour is apportioned in two ways: (1) for the Government, and (2) for private individuals or bodies of individuals. In the former case the capital invested is supplied from the fund set aside for prison expenditure, and materials, tools, implements, etc., are purchased from this fund. But in the latter case the trades are controlled as a private business by individuals, companies, or partnerships, who either obtain the necessary supply of labour from the prisons direct, or engage the employed prisoners at reasonable wages on application. Capital and materials are, of course, supplied by employers in each instance.

The Government work consists of the manufacture of articles required by the prisons themselves and other Government departments, also of mining and engineering connected with those offices. The principal branches of industry are as follows: Loom-working, carpentry, joinery, needlework, smith-craft, straw-work, brick-making, coal-mining, paper-making, and construction and repairs of buildings. Brick-working, among other industries, fully answers all demands of the Government departments.

Where the supply of labour is obtained from the prisons by private employers the work is usually of the following nature: the manufacture of silk-stuff, soles of Japanese socks, cotton-flannel, mats, Japanese socks, bricks, matches, Japanese cloisonné, uchiwa (a Japanese fan, round and not to be folded); quarrying and work in cot on-mills.

Originally all prison expenses in Japan were defrayed from the Central Government Treasury; but in 1880 the support of local prisons established for the incarceration of those undergoing confinement or other lower punishment, and the custody of all other accused persons, was transferred from the Treasury to municipal and local purses, owing to the abolition of paper currency and the general report of financial administration. This change did not, however, affect the salaries of prison officials or prison expenses in Hokkaido, Okinawa-ken, and the island of Ogasawara, where local taxation was not yet levied; nor did the change affect the expenses of central prisons established for imprisoning male criminals condemned to penal servitude or transportation under the existing code, or to imprisonment for life under the old law—all these depending on the National Treasury for their existence. Later, with the progress of civilization, the sum of local expenditure has been gradually increased in the interests of education, engineering works, and the encouragement of agriculture and industries of various sorts. In these circumstances it is not surprising that an adequate sum of money was not available for the maintenance of the prisons, and the result of this ​unsatisfactory condition of affairs was the diversity shown in the several localities in their supply of food, clothing, and bedding, as well as their treatment of prisoners, with a consequent lack of uniformity in administration. Thereupon the Government determined to remedy the conditions which had prevailed for twenty years, and by Law No. 14, passed in 1900, took the support of prisons from the control of the local purse and gave it into the hands of the National Treasury once more. This change was the signal for general activity in prison administration reforms, and various improvements have since been effected in the treatment of prisoners. It is hoped that still further reforms will be instituted in the near future.

The present expenditure and revenue are as follows. The total amount of this revenue is 25 per cent. of the ordinary expenditure.

For a long time prison statistics in Japan reported only a part of the facts respecting prison administration, owing to imperfect compilation, with the consequent failure to supply accurate information. But of late years the method of compilation has, to a large extent, been improved. Meantime we have had tables furnished us giving almost all the minute details regarding prison affairs, and these statistics have shown a gradual improvement. Every effort is made to secure accuracy and perfection of detail for these tables, and to this end minute inquiries are made into the personal characters and circumstances of prisoners by means of card-recording, which method was first adopted in 1900. These inquiries are made in the various prisons under the system of local separate investigation, each prison having a statistical reporter specially appointed for that purpose.

We are convinced that prison reform is probably coextensive ​with the development of benevolent work for the maintenance of ex-convicts or discharged prisoners of good conduct, but we regret to state that the work of such a social nature as the support of discharged prisoners is still in a state of infancy amidst the rapid progress of affairs in Japan since the Restoration. According to the report of November, 1900, there are at present in our country thirty-two societies for aiding such persons, and eight of them have been incorporated as legal bodies. These societies claim to have looked after 3,358 discharged prisoners up to the present time, but owing to the short time they have been in existence their methods of business are still imperfect, and their efforts have failed of any very great success. Be that as it may, however, they are introducing many improvements into their plans, and the number of such societies is increasing yearly, which augurs well for the future, and it is probable that ere long the social condition of Japan will have greatly improved by reason of the further progress of civilization and the gradual development of philanthropic ideals.