But there's not much difference between recidivism rates. According to Japan's Correction Bureau, the recidivism rate for Japanese inmates from 1992 through 1997 was 46.8 percent, only slightly higher than the almost 40 percent estimated for the United States, said Allen Beck, BJS corrections statistics chief. Japan's present Prison Law, which dictates how prisons operate and how inmates are treated, dates back 90 years and has never been revised. In 1993, though, the Correction Bureau started trying to introduce a new penal institutional bill that would replace the old law. That bill has not yet passed.
Japan cites the higher U.S. rate of prison violence to stress their facilities' effectiveness.
He compared the Japanese prison system, with its discipline and psychological violence, to Marine Corps training. What they call rehabilitation means putting in 35 hours a week of work and keeping your mouth shut. A Japanese prisoner working Crittenden described one incident in Fuchu prison where guards repeatedly hit him in the back of his head in an apparent dispute over his refusal to cut his facial hair. Crittenden turned his head away, he said, and in response a number of guards rushed in, threw him to the floor, jumped on his back and wrapped a restraining belt so tightly around his waist that he had difficulty breathing. Because his hands were bound, guards would come in and try to shovel food in his mouth, not giving him time to chew.