JAPAN PRISONS.PDF
JAPAN PRISONS.PDF
- The Japanese prison system enforces strict discipline and isolation, restricting prisoner contact with each other and the outside world through censorship and limited visits.
- Prisoners face a detailed and often arbitrary set of rules regulating every aspect of their daily lives, with vague punishments, leading to instances of cruel and unusual punishment.
- Pre-indictment detention in police custody (daiyo-kangoku) is prone to abuses, including lengthy interrogation sessions, violence, and limited access to legal counsel, often compelling false confessions.
- Foreign prisoners and individuals held for immigration violations experience heightened isolation, language barriers, and racial discrimination within the prison system.
- A variety of international laws for the treatment of prisoners are routinely violated in Japanese prisons. Human Rights Watch recommends new prison legislation and policy changes
JAPAN PRISONS.PDF
@powderhownd14922 months ago
PRISON CONDITIONS IN JAPAN
Human Rights Watch/Asia Human Rights Watch Prison Project
Human Rights Watch New York A Washington A Los Angeles A London A Brussels
Copyright 8 March 1995 by Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN 1-56432-146-0
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-075214
Illustrations in Figures 1 and 2 (pages 7 and 8) by Pamela Blotner for Human Rights Watch. Drawings of the sitting position seiza .
Illustration in Figure 3 (page 10). Drawing of single cell exercise area in Osaka Prison. Courtesy of the Japanese Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA).
Illustrations in Figure 4 (page 27) by Shigeru Azuchi for Human Rights Watch. Drawings of physical restraints used on prisoners.
Human Rights Watch/Asia
Human Rights Watch/Asia was established in 1985 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Asia. Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is the Washington director; Robin Munro is the Hong Kong director; Zunetta Liddell, Dinah PoKempner, Patricia Gossman and Jeannine Guthrie are research associates; Mark Girouard is a Henry R. Luce Fellow; Diana Cheng and Jennifer Hyman are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant. Orville Schell is the vice chair of the advisory committee.
Human Rights Watch Prison Project
The Human Rights Watch Prison Project was established in 1988 to document and combat substandard prison conditions worldwide. Joanna Weschler is the director; Marti Weithman is the associate. Herman Schwartz is chair of the advisory committee.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Human Rights Watch conducts regular, systematic investigations of human rights abuses in some seventy countries around the world. It addresses the human rights practices of governments of all political stripes, of all geopolitical alignments, and of all ethnic and religious persuasions. In internal wars it documents violations by both governments and rebel groups. Human Rights Watch defends freedom of thought and expression, due process and equal protection of the law; it documents and denounces murders, disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment, exile, censorship and other abuses of internationally recognized human rights.
Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the founding of its Helsinki division. Today, it includes five divisions covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, as well as the signatories of the Helsinki accords. It also includes five collaborative projects on arms transfers, children's rights, free expression, prison conditions, and women's rights. It maintains offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, London, Brussels, Moscow, Belgrade, Zagreb, Dushanbe, and Hong Kong. Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly.
The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director; Cynthia Brown, program director; Holly J. Burkhalter, advocacy director; Ann Johnson, development director; Gara LaMarche, associate director; Juan MÃndez, general counsel; Susan Osnos, communications director; and Derrick Wong, finance and administration director.
The regional directors of Human Rights Watch are Abdullahi An-Na'im, Africa; Josà Miguel Vivanco, Americas; Sidney Jones, Asia; Jeri Laber, Helsinki; and Christopher E. George, Middle East. The project directors are Joost R. Hiltermann, Arms Project; Lois Whitman, Children's Rights Project; Gara LaMarche, Free Expression Project; and Dorothy Q. Thomas, Women's Rights Project.
The members of the board of directors are Robert L. Bernstein, chair; Adrian W. DeWind, vice chair; Roland Algrant, Lisa Anderson, Peter D. Bell, Alice L. Brown, William Carmichael, Dorothy Cullman, Irene Diamond, Edith Everett, Jonathan Fanton, Alan Finberg, Jack Greenberg, Alice H. Henkin, Harold Hongju Koh, Stephen L. Kass, Marina Pinto Kaufman, Alexander MacGregor, Josh Mailman, Peter Osnos, Kathleen Peratis, Bruce Rabb, Orville Schell, Gary G. Sick, Malcolm Smith, Nahid Toubia, Maureen White, and Rosalind C. Whitehead.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report is based primarily on information gathered by a Human Rights Watch delegation that visited Japan in July 1994 and included the director of Human Rights Watch Prison Project, Joanna Weschler, and a representative of the organization's Asia division. The report was written by Ms. Weschler. It was reviewed by Sidney Jones, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch/Asia and edited by Cynthia Brown and Robert Kimzey, respectively Program Director and Publications Director of Human Rights Watch. Juan Mendez, the General Counsel of Human Rights Watch reviewed legal sections of the report. Marti Weithman prepared the manuscript for publication.
We wish to express our deep appreciation to the many Japanese lawyers, human rights advocates, and former prisoners who assisted us in our work. In particular, we wish to thank: Mr. Yuichi Kaido, Mr. Keita Abe, Mr. Yasuhiro Kanaitsuka, Ms. Futaba Igarashi, Mr. Koichi Kikuta, Mr. Toshikuni Murai, Mr. Yoichi Kitamura, Mr. Yasuo Maruyama and Mr. Shigeru Azuchi. Mr. Akira Suehiro, Ms. Mari Hasegawa, Mr. Mitsuhiro Wada, Mr. Akira Arai. We are also grateful to our translators, Ms. Lisa Prevenslik and Ms. Megumi Komori.