Prisons cope with graying population
TOKUSHIMA, Japan — A gaunt 92-year-old man in a wheelchair sunbathes in a narrow courtyard, motionless, his eyes closed. Nearby, a few dozen other elderly men with short gray hair exercise slowly as an instructor gently calls out: “Don’t strain yourselves.”
The man in the wheelchair is not in a nursing home.
He is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder and rape. The others nearby are serving time for serious crimes too, including murder.
Their prison, in Tokushima, 520 kilometers west of Tokyo, converted a building to house elderly inmates, putting itself at the forefront of an effort to cope with Japan’s graying prisoner population.
The number of inmates aged 60 or older has risen 7 percent from a decade ago to 9,308, and made up 19 percent of the entire prison population in Japan in 2016. That compares with only 6 percent of that age bracket in the United States and about 11 percent in South Korea.
A sizable chunk of elderly inmates are repeat offenders, which experts say reflects the difficulties of finding jobs after release and coping with the uncertainty freedom brings.
“I have a heart condition and used to collapse often at the (prison) factory,” said an 81-year-old inmate at Tokushima, imprisoned for life for killing a taxi driver and injuring another person six decades ago. Prison rules forbid publishing his name.
He and about two dozen other prisoners live, eat and work in the special building set aside for elderly prisoners who cannot do regular work such as making shoes and underwear.
The Ministry of Justice said it didn’t have information on what changes prisons have made to adapt to elderly prisoners, as such decisions are up to each facility.
The Tokushima prison tries to ensure that aging prisoners stay healthy without making conditions too comfortable, said Kenji Yamaguchi, the treatment director there.
Talking is forbidden during working hours, cells have no air conditioning, and prisoners can only bathe twice a week in winter and three times a week in summer.
“As they await their eventual release, we also want to see them leave in good health,” Yamaguchi said. “Some may think we are cutting them too much slack. But their freedom is still restricted considerably. It’s not exactly a comfortable life.”
But returning to life “on the outside” can be tough for older men. About a quarter of inmates 65 and older end up back in prison within two years, the highest of any age group, according to government data tracking those released in 2015.
“If you are young, you can find a job and have a chance to lead a normal life,” said Yasuyuki Deguchi, a professor at Tokyo Future University. “The lack of employment opportunities combined with labeling as an ex-convict makes reintegration difficult for the elderly.”