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December 5, 2010
Japan also struggling with aging prison population
As detailed in this new AP article, which is headlined "Japanese prisons face swelling elderly population," Japan is dealing with a prison problem that is very common in many US states. Here is how the piece starts:
Handrails run down the middle of the hallway to help prisoners make their way from one end to the other. Adult diapers are neatly stacked in a corner. When an inmate chokes on his rice and coughs, a supervisor rushes over to rub his back.
Welcome to the world of old-age prisons. Japan's population is aging faster than anywhere else, and with that has come an even sharper rise in elderly inmates.
The number of Japanese prisoners aged 60 or older has doubled over the past decade to more than 10,000. That outpaces a 30 percent increase in the general population for that age group. The elderly now represent 16 percent of the nation's inmates.
Though Japan's crime rate remains relatively low, the spike in elderly crime is another sign of the social and economic strains on the once-confident country.
December 5, 2010 at 12:52 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Do you know why the rate of crime is low in Japan? Hint. Population of Japan, 125 million. Population of USA, 300 million. Number of lawyers in USA, 1.3 million. Number of lawyers in Japan, 20,000 (not a typo). That is one lawyer for every 250 people in the USA, one for 6300 in Japan.
Comparative crime rates here:
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-R-0347.htm
Posted by: Supremacy Claus | Dec 5, 2010 8:49:18 PM
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807E4DB103FF931A35752C0A9659C8B63
Posted by: claudio giusti, italia | Dec 6, 2010 11:21:56 AM
" It is difficult to compare crime rates between the United States and other countries for a number of reasons, including differences in criminal justice systems, rates at which crimes are reported by victims and recorded by police, crime reporting systems and counting methods, definitions, and data quality. Any comparisons that rank countries should keep these difficulties in mind. "
Posted by: claudio giusti, italia | Dec 6, 2010 1:33:32 PM
It's difficult to compare crime rates between other countries for a number of reasons. Number of Japanese prisoners aged 60 or older has doubled over the past decade.This is the sign of the social and economic strains on the once-confident country. However Japanese government tries to resolve this problem. Before another problem arise.
Posted by: custom waterfall | Dec 6, 2010 10:02:48 PM
claudio --
"It is difficult to compare crime rates between the United States and other countries for a number of reasons, including differences in criminal justice systems, rates at which crimes are reported by victims and recorded by police, crime reporting systems and counting methods, definitions, and data quality. Any comparisons that rank countries should keep these difficulties in mind."
Correct, for once. How odd that you uniformly forget to say this when fretting that the USA, with its death penalty, has a higher murder rate than Western Europe, which doesn't.
Posted by: Bill Otis | Dec 7, 2010 2:31:33 PM
