Prison for the elderly
Tokushima – A gaunt, 92year-old man in a wheelchair sunbathes in a narrow courtyard, motionless, his eyes closed. Nearby, a few dozen other elderly men with short grey 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, 520km west of Tokyo, is a converted building to house elderly inmates, putting itself at the forefront of an effort to cope with Japan’s greying prisoner population.
The number of prisoners aged 60 or older has risen 7% from a decade ago to 9 308, and made up 19% of the entire prison population in Japan in 2016.
That compares with only 6% of that age bracket in the United States, and about 11% in South Korea.
A sizeable 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.
In a rare look inside a Japanese prison, Reuters visited the Tokushima facility and interviewed inmates who spend most of their days in large cells that sleep four or five, engaged in paper-folding projects and other light tasks.
Workers chop up noodles and other foods for those who have difficulty chewing and swallowing. The prison also employs a caregiver trained in working with the elderly for those in its hospital ward, including the 92-year-old man serving a life sentence.
Despite his life sentence, a 81-year-old has been released twice on parole, but wound up back in prison after being caught drinking alcohol, a parole violation. He hopes he will be paroled again so he can see his 103-year-old mother.