While
it isn't unusual for people in a family to follow the same profession for several
generations, being a third generation prison guard has to be something rare.
Sakamoto Toshio is just such a man. Both his father and his grandfather were
prison guards, Sakamoto grew up in guard housing units on prison grounds, and
later spent a quarter-century working as a guard. The picture he paints here
of Japanese prisons is not a pretty one.Sakamoto indicates that due to significant cutbacks in prison staffing and authorization for overtime hours any meaningful attempt at actually rehabilitating inmates and cutting recidivism has been abandoned in Japan.
Having read some of the books of Azuchi Shigeru, a veteran of 15 years in the system on the wrong side of the bars, I was interested in seeing if any contradictory information was to be forthcoming from a veteran guard like Sakamoto. My confidence in the reliability and veracity of ex-con Azuchi was confirmed when I discovered that not only does Sakamoto not contradict anything Azuchi says, he actually refers to Azuchi and his writings in this book, and in a positive manner.
If you're interested in getting a peek at what's wrong with the Japanese penal system, try to get your hands on this book.