Working in prison is one way to pass the time, but is it good for prisoners, or is the government just getting slave labor?
Momoko, Kansei, Koki
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Script
(Sound of crush)
Takeshi: oops!
Mom: hey, Takeshi, what’ve you done!
Takeshi: sorry…
Mom: it’s the third time you broke it.
Takeshi: I’m terribly sorry…
Mom: but we’ve got no choice. We should buy a new one.
Takeshi: are we going out?
Mom: no. let’s go online… look. This website offers a shelf at … hmm, that’s too dear.
Takeshi: mom, how about this site? Everything’s very cheap here.
Mom: oh, yeah. And they sell a lot of kinds of things, don’t they? Shelves, dining tables, chairs, shoes, soap, noodles, notebooks…
Takeshi: wow there’s also a mikoshi, or portable alter!
Mom: that’s interesting. Making traditional artifacts needs some special skill. You see who’re making them?
Takeshi: here it says “artifacts from jails”. Is it prisoners that are making those things??
Mom: right. This production is called “Correctional Association Prison Industry Co-operation”, in short C, A, P, I, C–CAPIC. It’s managed by an incorporated foundation, “the Correctional Association”.
Takeshi: the Correctional Association… I once saw its exhibition at a department store. How does it work?
Mom: First, it provides jails with materials. Prisoners work and process them for their penal servitude. The products are sent back to the Association and at last put on sale in public.
Takeshi: Penal servitude? What is it?
Mom: it is a kind of forced labor. Many prisoners are sentenced to do that.
Takeshi: Forced labor? You mean they aren’t paid for that?
Mom: not exactly. The government pays them a little money. For example, the wage of a first-rank worker is 34.6 yen per hour.
Takeshi: 34.6 yen… it’s about 40 cents. Not a useful amount of money…
Mom: no. As many as 70 thousand prisoners are working each day, but they aren’t paid much. That may be characteristic of Japanese jails.
Takeshi: hmm… what is the aim of that labor?
Mom: First, it’s a part of penalty. This website also says that it helps prisoners to coordinate their daily life, maintain their own health and realize their role and responsibility in jails, and that it helps them to return to the society smoothly.
Takeshi: I see. It’s very different from ordinary labor conducted in companies. And that’s why things sold here are very cheap, right?
Mom: that’s right. The benefit is collected to the Association, because the prices of payment from the government are fixed.
Takeshi: anyway, it’s beneficial for us that things so cheap are on sale.
Mom: Yeah, it’s a nice business model.
Takeshi: Now look at this webpage. The Association also accepts orders from ordinary companies.
Mom: what do you mean?
Takeshi: There is some industrial equipment in factories in jails. When they get an order from a company, they use such equipment to make products like CAPIC products that are sold on this website. What’s more, they can process metal or even publish a book written by amateurs!!
Mom: The client companies can benefit from that, because if they use that service, they don’t need to think about employment of a number of workers. But I wonder if prisoners have enough skill to accomplish their orders.
Takeshi: Don’t worry about it. There are already many skilled workers assigned to certain jails and they are supposed to teach their know-how to their colleagues. If they don’t know everything, companies can send some technicians instead.
Mom: That guarantees the quality of their products, right?
Takeshi: Yeah, that’s right. Hey, let’s buy this nice one, too.
Mom: no, no, we don’t need it.
Takeshi: hmm… then how about this one?
Mom: oh, I love it! Click on that button.
Takeshi: thank you, mom!