The U.S. Supreme Court has given California two years to release or relocate 33,000 prison inmates. This is good news to those who think criminal justice reform is overdue.
But how can we have criminal justice reform without reforming American culture? And how can we change American culture without offending someone’s civil rights?
Mention prison reform, and someone inevitably cites the success of Japan. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Virginia) credited the Japanese corrections system for raising his consciousness and making him question why America has the highest incarceration rate. Governors struggling with budgets have picked up Webb’s mantra.
If you think Webb is on to something, you might want to check out “Japanese Corrections: Managing Convicted Offenders in an Orderly Society,” by Elmer H. Johnson, a former professor at Southern Illinois University and parole supervisor. Published in 1996 and shelved in the closed stacks at Multnomah County Library, it appears the book isn’t read much.
“Prison environments are havens of tranquility, and inmates are remarkably submissive to their keepers,” Johnson writes of Japan’s correctional system. If that sounds unrealistic, note the word “orderly” in the book’s subtitle. Perhaps Americans who favor criminal justice reform could start by advocating for more orderliness.
Japan’s criminal justice system gets off to a better start than ours simply by clearing more cases. That helps lessen public vengefulness towards criminals since more of them are held accountable. Among the types of crimes for which Japanese men were sent to prison, property crimes came in first, followed by violence against persons. In the U.S., victims of property crimes often have to settle for nothing more than a police report.
“Japanese police … benefit from considerable participation of citizens,” Johnson found. “The remarkable clearance rate also has been explained as a consequence of less concern about civil rights.”
In Japan, there are no Miranda warnings and fewer search-and-seizure restrictions. Being arrested by police is regarded as shameful. “Snitch” is apparently not a bad word. Do those sound like concepts we could import here?
Of course, as Johnson noted, one reason why there are fewer Japanese inmates incarcerated for violent crimes is a centuries-old prohibition against the “possession of firearms and swords.” How would such a prohibition be greeted in the U.S.? (Even with Japan’s restriction on guns and swords, the yakuza – Mafia gangsters – “cling to a criminal subculture” that includes firearms.)
In Japanese corrections, the emphasis is on “self-purification” and “learning self-discipline” through prison labor. There is extensive subcontracting between business and the industrial prison system in Japan. Two-thirds of the adult inmates spend a 40-hour week making products sold on the open market, Johnson writes. “An active inmate labor force is of crucial importance in prison management.”
Although the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically allows for prison labor, given the number of black inmates in the U.S., there are naturally comparisons to slavery. Even a generally positive story in the New York Times about the advantages of using prison labor to ease budget gaps can generate accusations of indentured servitude by prison reform and prisoner rights groups.
There are fewer such groups in Japan. “Forced confinement inevitably will favor the development of distinctive inmate values, but Japanese inmates are far less inclined to mount subcultural opposition to prison staff and its official goals,” Johnson found.
Japanese wardens do have their equivalent of America’s “litigious inmate” who files complaints, but there’s a difference.
“Americans are alert to the possibility that special-interest groups will seize upon inmate grievances, whether well-founded or not, as an opportunity to condemn the prison and its staff in general. Japanese officials are less vulnerable to pressure-group politics, and any tendency of Japanese inmates to express openly their dissatisfaction is inhibited by cultural heritage.”
When it comes to parole, the Japanese have a version of “it takes a village” to assist former prisoners. This program is called the Volunteer Probation Officers. These are often retired persons who step forward to not only help rehabilitate the criminal but also lead “public opinion for the prevention of offenses … .”
Probably the closest thing we have to that is notification when a sex offender is moving into the neighborhood.
Yes, the Japanese corrections system is more impressive than America’s. It helps that Japan’s prison cells aren’t crowded, and the inmates aren’t attacking each other. In America, prison life has been turned into entertainment by Hollywood.
Several years ago when the TV show “Oz” was popular, my dental hygienist asked me what I was working on. When I mentioned I had interviewed a convict, she chirped, “Oh! Has he been raped?” Popular culture in America has glorified prison life, and entire businesses exist to serve the prison lifestyle.
Perhaps the most significant difference between Japan’s corrections system and ours is what is not found in Johnson’s book. Check the index.
There is no entry under “race.” Apparently it’s not an issue in Japan.
— Pamela Fitzsimmons
I hear people comparing Japanese schools to American schools and I always think it’s unfair. The two countries are totally different. Since I’ll probably never read that book, what does it say about the guards in Japanese prisons. Anything about them? I ask because I know from a family member who worked in one that prisons in the soutehrn U.S. can be brutal.
My relative liked the work for awhile. The guards can and do help some of the inmates.
The book devotes a chapter to those who work in corrections. The staff is recruited from universities and high schools, and the Correction Bureaus offer lifetime employment. There is a private organization called the Japanese Correctional Association, but its focus is on training.
Much is made in the U.S. about the power of prison guard unions (curious, isn’t it, that people who tend to be pro-union suddenly become anti-union when it’s correctional officers or police involved). Like your family member discovered, we can have corrupt and cruel prison guards here. That happens anytime, and anywhere, one man has power over another. You have to have guards in a prison, though.
One difference that Johnson notes is that instead of federal, state and local correctional agencies like we have here, Japan concentrates its operations in a national bureau. This “encourages fiscal efficiency, uniformity of policy and practice, systemized recruitment of personnel, and effective in-service training.”
–Pamela
If I recall correctly, the one or two Japanese activists taken by terrorist thugs in Iraq apologized to their nation for the shame their actions had brought upon Nippon and their families.
God, that we could employ Japanese carceral remedies. As it is I suspect that we’ll be getting British practices. That is to say property crime criminals will be of the catch and release type. I believe property crime in the U.K is very, very, very high, in part because its sort of viewed as victimless. No one is really punished for it, unless of course you are the property owner who defends his property.
Recently I read of an English thief released from prison because it violated his human rights (no one was at home to tend the 5 kids he had living on the dole).
Prison rape is a horrific matter and did we not live in a rapidly matriachializing society it would be recognized as an intolerable human rights crime against men in America. But, hell, were we to have a balanced society we would distribute our efforts equally in our educational and other systems and then we might see the male carceral rate, especially the black male carceral statistics decline.
We do live in a society that is becoming more matriarchal, but I don’t think prison rape has ever been taken very seriously. Sometimes I think the only men who understand women’s fear of rape are men in prison.
You’re probably right about property criminals becoming catch and release (assuming they are ever caught). I know so many people (even cops) who have been burglarized or had cars stolen, and the crimes were never cleared. They were lucky if they got their property back.
Pamela
You seem to be missing several points about the japanese legal system:
1. The high “case closure rate” is due to the the high “confession” rate. Even if not guilt, you are still expected to confess – and police can, and do, use various forms of mistreatment to ensure that you do.
2. In Japan, you are held and denied access to legal representation UNTIL you confess. The police can hold you without charge (or legal representation) for 24 days. Then they must release you, but can immediately arrest you and begin the process again.
3. The Japanese Ministry of Justice has been caught several times in “falsifying evidence” scandals
4. The rules of evidence are often not used nor required by the courts.
5. There are actually laws on the books to prevent the above occurrences, but those laws are ignored.
6. Although the Japanese constitution states certain basic civil rights – there are no laws on the books to enforce those rights, nor punish those who deny others those rights.
7. The Supreme court of Japan has ruled that the only human rights that count are those specifically allowed to *Japanese citizens* by the courts. Foreigners are not even entitled to those protections.
So basically, there is a high number of innocents sitting in Japanese prison cells.
This is all very well documented by numerous human-rights groups and media sources over the years.
— So I’ll take our system, thank you.
Patrick,
Thanks for writing. Yes, I would take our system over any other.
One of the reasons why I read that book on Japanese corrections and wrote about it is that I got tired of hearing politicians (like Sen. James Webb) talking about how superior other countries’ criminal justice systems are compared to ours. One country they often cite is Japan.
I checked out your Web site. Hope you are reunited with your sons.
Pamela
To provide so backup for my above comments:
Pressed by Police, Even Innocent Confess in Japan – New York Times http://nyti.ms/rjfq6c
Transfer of Power at Japan’s Justice Ministry :: JapanFocus http://bit.ly/t2fulZ
BBC News – Japan urged to end ‘false confessions’ http://bbc.in/tZovzb
U.N. Committee Faults Japan Human Rights Performance, Demands Progress Report on Key Issues :: JapanFocus http://bit.ly/s3YfPR
Japan: Man Beaten Into False Confession of Child Murder Set Free After 17 Years in Prison – Boing Boing http://bit.ly/w2ssnT
Public Prosecutor’s Office is threatening democracy in Japan – http://bit.ly/rrPREm
Fishing for false confessions | The Japan Times Online http://bit.ly/tYuDOZ
Japan urged to end ‘false confessions’ http://bit.ly/sB96nf
False Confessions – http://bit.ly/seHixd
In addition, parental child abduction is allowed, condoned and even advised by Japan Attorneys and the Japanese family court system.
They have unilateral sole custody, no enforceable visitation, and the court awards that sole custody to whichever parent abducts the child first.
Hi Pamela,
Thank you for your sympathies regarding my children. Unfortunately, the odds on reunion are slim to none. This is an area were the Department of State has been given the authority to make the policy calls – and in over two decades, they have never managed to facilitate a single child return, nor a single reunification. They have a record of downplaying the issue of child abduction and Japan – in the name of “Diplomacy”.
If you are curious: Child Abduction in Japan… The REAL Numbers – part 1. | Letters to Kai and Koh http://bit.ly/pteCAe
—-
Another point for our system vs. the Japanese system — Jurys.
The Japanese system does not use them (although last year they “tried” one as an experiment), which allows for the continual corruption between the courts and the prosecution in Japan.
http://shiminnokai.net/press.html
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