The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-07-26
JAPANESE PRISON LIFE
Plain Food and Reasonable La
Dor For the Prisoners.
DISCIPLINE is ENTIRELY MILITARY
Convicts Are Not Considered Fallen
Creatures or Social Outcasts-Every
Effort Made to Elevate the Inmates.
No difference Between the Prisons
and Huts Of Free Peasants

FELIm"
No difference the Prisons
and Hnts Of Free Peasants.
The following article was written by
j. Legras in the Revue Penitentiare of
Paris and translated for Public Opin-
ion:
That which is especially striking ut
first sight in a Japanese prison Is that
there is no difference between the pris-
on and the hut of the ~frGlvpeasant, the
Japanese declaring that II the prison
were elevated to the level Of a modern
~penitentiary it would be too attractive
and would increase crime. Upon ap-
preaching the prison, in place of high
and forbidding walls, you see a large
country house, with a series OF out
buildings, the prison itself being COM
pletely open, while the wooden bars at
the windows have nothing of the for
bidding aspect of u iron gratings.
The interior of the building is COM
pletely open. although formerly at
Itchigoi there was a corridor separated
from the building by a paper wall
where the guards slept. The food given
the prisoners is in proportion to their
conduct and industry, the prisoners
who do not conduct themselves as they
should receiving a cake Of rice which
must last for seven days, while in the
case of the orderly prisoners the same
cake lasts for only four days. The
prisoners who conduct themselves prop
erly receive also a little horse meat,
with potato or pea sauce. with their
meals.
The labor in the greatest of the Japa-
nese prisons, at Itchigoi, is forced,
but the buildings in which the work is
performed are clean and perfectly ven
tilated, and in fact are model work
rooms which to most workmen would
appear all that could possibly be de-
sired. Some prisoners are employed
in hard work, such as the thrashing of
rice in primitive mills, but only the
most robust are made to perform such
service.
The hours for the hard labor are
from seven to eight per day, the less
strong inmates of the penitentiary be-
ing employed in weaving clothing for
the prisoners out of a coarse, rose
colored linen. while old people and the
sick are seen OF all sides calmly sort
ing out various kinds Of paper. All of
the prisoners receive q portion of the
profit derived from their labor, al
though this to a European would not
be much.
The discipline which has been estab-
lished in the various prisons is entire
" military, and it should be stated
that a prisoner is not considered a
fallen creature or one to be excluded
from society because of the fact that
he has served his time. From a moral
and material standpoint there is no
difference between a prisoner and a
free man. and in the prisons every ef-,
fort is made to elevate the inmates, all
of the youths less than nineteen years
of age passing two hours per day at
school. In many cases prisoners, when
they have finished their sentences, re-
main in the prisons as domestic. There
is also a curious legal provision which
states that they can only leave the
PRISON Wnen surety Is pfOVlueu ny
parents or friends. Thus it may hap
pen that a student Of twenty-three
years of age condemned to the prison
for sixty days for the theft Of a book,
because of the fact that he has no one
to go his security and thus be respon-
sible for his release, remains buried
for life in the prison. The idea Of the
law is not unjust, however much it
may appear so, the purpose of the
regulation being to assure the prisoner
a solid base on which to re-enter So
ciety. In order to remedy this condi-
ton little by little there have been
formed societies which take in hand
the cases of unprotected prisoners.