Elderly jamming Japanese prisons

TOKYO -- There are still plenty of metal bars and handcuffs, but Japanese prisons these days have some new features: wheelchair- friendly stair ramps, handrails in the bathrooms and nurses trained to spoon-feed inmates.

The changes are necessary to adapt to a new kind of convict in Japan -- the elderly one.

Like the wider society, Japan's prison population is aging rapidly. The number of inmates 60 and older has tripled in the past decade and is expected to increase further. More than half of the older inmates are behind bars for the first time.

The trend is forcing Japan's 67 prisons to adapt.

"Overall, their movements are slow, they have to make a lot of effort to understand our simple instructions. It really takes up a lot of time," said Yusa, a correctional official at the Justice Ministry who asked to be identified only by his family name.

"For those who can't keep up with their younger peers just walking from one section to another, we keep them in a separate group," he said, adding that older prisoners are still required to provide compulsory labor, but with shorter hours and easier tasks, such as folding envelopes.

The graying of the prison population reflects changes in the wider society. A government report last year said nearly one in five Japanese were 65 or older in 2004, and the figure could balloon to one in four in the next decade.

Where there are more elderly people, there are more elderly criminals. The National Police Agency says senior citizens accounted for more than 10 percent of crimes reported to the police in 2004, double the 5 percent registered a decade earlier.

Senior prisoners in 2004 numbered 7,381, up nearly 60 percent from 2000, and account for more than 11 percent of all inmates in Japan, the Justice Ministry says. In the United States, inmates ages 55 or older make up only 3 percent of the prison population.

Thinning family ties, a lack of income and increasing medical expenses are behind the growing number of elderly crimes, said Nobuo Komiya, a criminology expert at Tokyo's Rishho University.

"The Japanese used to rely on their children after retirement or their relatives who can afford it used to provide support, but not any more," Komiya said. "When they get out of prison, they have nobody to turn to."

That reality is making some wonder if some elderly Japanese are committing petty crimes in the hopes of being put behind bars, where shelter and three meals a day are guaranteed.

Yusa, for example, said he had heard of senior citizens committing crimes like constantly skipping out on restaurant bills until they get caught, convicted and jailed. The Justice Ministry plans to conduct a national study on elderly crimes beginning April to examine that trend.

"Some of them, especially the repeaters, may think life inside the prisons is easier than outside," he said. "Our country continues aging, but we must avoid turning prisons into retirement homes."

Elderly crime is rising despite a drop in the overall crime rate. While the total number of arrests fell by 0.5 percent in 2004 from a year earlier, the number of arrested senior citizens rose by more than 10 percent during the period.

Still, Japan's gray-haired criminals are not particularly violent. Theft -- mostly shoplifting and picking pockets -- accounted for the majority of elderly crimes in 2004, with less than 1 percent of them committing serious crimes such as murder.

When they do try to kill, the elderly often target spouses.

Earlier this month, an 83-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempting to stab his 82-year-old wife at a hospital, saying he was exhausted by taking care of her and planned to commit suicide after the murder. His wife was unhurt.

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