How common are people that return to jail time after time in Japan? What are the causes?
Keita, Hideaki, Yohei
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Script
H:Hello. This is the Ryan news. Let me begin With a social problem feature. Today’s topic is “Jails are full of prisoners.”. 10 years ago, prisoners filled jails to capacity in Japan and now they are of 120% of capacity. One of the reasons is that they have comfortable lives in jails and many of them are recidivists. IÅfm afraid you arenÅft familiar with this word “Recidivist”, which means people who continue to commit crime. About this topic, I will interview to a man who was a prisoner and recidivist before.
H:Hello, sir.
P:Hello.
H:Lately, it’s said that jails are full of prisoners. In reality, is this true?
P:Yes, I think it’s true. It seems to me that my jail was full of prisoners.
H:Did you feel a lot of stress because of such congestion?
P:No. It’s true that I sometimes felt uneasy, but my jail had modern equipment and pleasant surroundings, so I lived a relatively good life there.
H:Could you be a little more specific about it?
P:Sure. It had a room with a TV and great meals. In addition, we did club activities or borrowed books and read them. Needless to say, we can get money from prison work.
H:Well, it appears to be a comfortable life.
P:And, above all, former prisoners find it difficult to get jobs even after they leave jails. I myself had no choice but to commit a crime again and return to jail.
H:Thank you.
H:Like his talk, jails which are comfortable for prisoners increase. And, in fact, former prisoners often become jobless. As a result, they want to live in jail more than outside and become recidivists. One study in a certain jail shows that 34% of the prisoners are recidivists. In other hand, if you see the jails which are not full of equipment, excess of prisoners may make poor circumstances there and cause conflict between them. The government seems to deal with this situation. For example, it entrusts a task of jails to private enterprises because it hasnÅft much money. But this policy is too powerless to solve the problem because of its increase. We must consider this.