Kotaro Otsubo
Director, Nanko Airinkai (Social Welfare Corporation)
Nagasaki Prefecture Community Life Settlement Support Center
Secretary General, National Council for Community Life Settlement Support Centers

1.Introduction

According to the “White Paper on Crime of 2021” issued by the Ministry of Justice of Japan, the recidivism rate within 2 years of all prisoners in Japan after leaving the prison is on a downward trend.  As for those who left the prisons in 2019, it was below 16% for the first time.  However, the re-entry rate of prisoners who were released due to sentence completion has remained considerably higher than that of those released due to parole.  Therefore, further enhancement of measures to prevent recidivism is required.” (1)

The Community Life Settlement Support Centers (hereinafter referred to as the “Centers”) play a part in preventing recidivism.  The Centers provide services to those who need welfare support due to their disabilities or old age after being released from prison.  For instance, we secure housing and provide services necessary for living in the community so that they will not be isolated, which we believe will prevent repeated crimes.  In Japan each prefecture has one Center, and there are 48 Centers in total (two in Hokkaido as it is a wide area).  The number of people getting support is about 1,400 per year.

2.Services Provided by Community Life Settlement Support Centers

The Centers have two characteristics that are different from other consultation support organizations.  The first one is that a Center covers areas beyond the boundaries of prefectures.  It is because the prison where a subject serves a sentence is determined according to a standard called the treatment index.  So, he/she may have to serve a sentence in a prison far away from where he/she lived.  For those who wish to return to his/her prefecture, the Center where the prison is and the Center in the desired place of return cooperate with each other to support the prisoner.

The second point is that it is possible for the Center to continue to be involved in providing support, regardless of the age of the person, the presence or absence of disabilities, and whether or not they are using welfare services.  For target persons with disabilities, even those who do not have a certificate of disability or those who think they may have a disability may be included as service beneficiaries.  The reason is that many of them are unaware of their disabilities and may not be able to obtain the necessary support; so, our involvement often leads to the acquisition of the disability certificate.

There are four kinds of support provided by the Center with the above-mentioned characteristics:

1. “Coordination,” which is to prepare the subjects for life after being released from prison
2. “Follow-up,” which is to monitor their life after being released
3. “Consultation,” which is to provide consultation services to the target people after their release
4. “Support for the Suspects,” which began in 2021

The kind of support given to the subjects before they enter prison is called “entry support,” and the term for during their prison stay or after they leave prison is called “exit support.”  Until the start of the service called “support for suspects,” the Center’s work was practically composed of “exit support.”  It can be said that the “support for the suspects” which started in 2021 is the result of the consultation support services that each Center has voluntarily provided.  We believe that this is a major step forward in the sense that the Centers nationwide can provide “entrance support” as well as “exit support” regardless of regions; moreover, these types of support can now reach those who had not yet received any kind of support.

3.Current Status and Issues of Support

The Nagasaki Prefecture Community Life Settlement Support Center (hereinafter referred to as “this Center”) was established on January 19, 2009 as a model ahead of the rest of the country, based on the results of the “Research on Community Life Support for Persons with Disabilities Who Committed Crimes (a 3-year project)” (welfare labor science research by Tajima group) implemented by Nanko Airinkai in fiscal 2006.  This pioneering effort led to the “Community Life Settlement Promotion Project,” which is a center project managed by prefectures; and in 2011, more Centers were established nationwide.

This Center has provided support to 987 people in about 14 years since its establishment up until March 31, 2022.  For the past few years, about 90 new consultation services have been provided annually by eight staff members.

When we look at the target people by category, the number of persons with disabilities (including those suspect) is as many as 788, which is more than two out of three persons.  In addition, we can see that the number of persons with mental disabilities is increasing every year, and that the average number of persons with intellectual disabilities is constantly around 30.  Next, as far as age is concerned, we provide our services to a wide range of age groups from 15 to 92 years old.  The persons who are 65 years old and over are 357 out of 987, which is one in three.  As to procedures on how to apply for welfare services, we start from obtaining the consent of the persons.  It is apparent that there are so many kinds of people who need welfare services.

Upon their release, 472 persons returned to Nagasaki Prefecture after this Center made arrangements for their return and domicile.  10.6% of them have returned to prison after committing another crime.  This figure is quite low as compared with the “re-imprisonment rate” of 58.0% in 2020 according to the Ministry of Justice’s “White Paper on Crime 2021,” although the conditions are different as it includes subjects other than those who were released (2).  We believe that the welfare-type of support by this Center is effective from the viewpoint of preventing recidivism.

The most difficult thing about providing support is to secure places where the subjects can settle down, as well as the increased amount of work because of the prolonged support being provided.  The reason for this is that people in the community generally tend to avoid people with a criminal record.  Furthermore, the potential risk of letting persons with disabilities and the elderly rent living spaces without guarantors or emergency contacts makes things even more difficult.  Under such circumstances, the most common type of housing our people are referred to is studio-type apartments (a little over 40%).  Next comes group homes for persons with disabilities (a little less than 20%).  We are able to make this possible because we have prepared these logistics based on the wishes of the target beneficiaries.  However, since we, in this Center, cannot act as guarantors, the real estate agencies and welfare establishments that have accepted our people ask us to provide aftercare in return for various problems they may cause, which has led to this Center’s longer period of engagement.  Another reason for the prolonged period of support is that while we do provide a wide range of support regardless of age and disability as mentioned earlier and as a characteristic of this Center, there is no other such organization giving consultation support that can take over the responsibilities from us.

In response to these issues, in national and prefectural policies, cooperation among concerned organizations and projects is being sought out – such as municipal core consultation support centers (community life support projects) and multi-layered support system development projects, housing support councils and housing support corporations.  We are hoping that we will be able to come up with the solutions to various problems that the Centers face.

4.Conclusion

In 2016, the “Act for the Prevention of Recidivism” was enforced, and the government and the community have since gradually deepened their interest and understanding of the need for support for people coping with various problems; and I think the momentum is growing towards the “prevention of recidivism.”  However, due to the fact that the roles are concentrated in one private institution such as this Center, we hope that future measures will further strengthen multi-organizational cooperation and promote the sharing of responsibilities.  Another point I would like emphasize is that the “prevention of recidivism” is not our purpose.  Our goal is the “realization of an inclusive society,” and we are working to create a community that includes people who committed crimes in the past.  We will continue our endeavors so that the day will come when a “kind society” that is inclusive even for them will be realized.

【References】
(1) Ministry of Justice “White Paper on Crime 2021” Foreword
(2) Ministry of Justice “White Paper on Crime 2021” P.241