Japan’s Elderly Prisoners
NTV’s “Bankshia” news program visits Kurobane Prison in Tochigi prefecture to see how the aging of Japan has led to an increase in the number of elderly convicts in its prison system:
A little over 10% of the inmates in Kurobane prison are over the age of 60. The majority of these prisoners are doing time for crimes like theft and fraud, and it is said that quite a few of them committed petty crimes like shoplifting.
Some of the inmates cannot bathe, walk or eat without assistance. One particular prisoner seems to have mental problems that make him scream and resist help from others. The men in white coats who act as their daytime caregivers are not prison employees – they are younger inmates who have been assigned to such work. At night, their care becomes the duty of prison guards.
A prison official says that the current system, which requires that elderly prisoners be kept in normal prisons, needs serious improvement. A lot of prison facilities are not designed for elderly or physically infirm people, and the younger prisoners who act as caregivers do not have any professional qualifications to perform such work.
There is one prison in Japan that has special facilities for the elderly: Onomichi prison in Hiroshima prefecture. From the 6 minute and 30 second mark in the video, they show how staircases, baths, and other parts of the prison are set up to make life easier for older inmates. There are cells with cushioned walls for violent inmates. There are diapers and cells with rubber flooring for inmates who have bladder control issues. Food is also cut into tiny pieces so that inmates do not have to chew it.
The sight of one prisoner, a man in his eighties who was locked up for causing a traffic accident, is particularly depressing. He appears to be suffering from dementia to such an extent that he cannot even remember his cell number. Guards need to re-instruct him every day on how to carry out simple tasks. When everyone is locked into their cells for the night, the man falls asleep in a sitting position before he has a chance to set up his futon.
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