Ferry Fathurokhman
(PhD student at Kanazawa
University)
Friday, July 11th 2014.
I, several undergraduate students and three professors of Kanazawa University
visited 湖南 学院 (Konan
Gakuin) in Ishikawa prefecture. Konan gakuin is actually a Juvenile
Training School (JTS) or in Japanese is called少年院 (Shounen’in), a correctional institution for juvenile.
As of 2010, Japan has 51 JTS that spread all over Japan (UNAFEI, Criminal
Justice System in Japan, 2011:8),
according to Endo Hideaki, Head of Konan Gakuin JTS, since 2011 Japan
build another JTS so it becomes 52 in total. There are two purposes why I visit
Konan Gakuin JTS. Firstly, I want to know the system of correctional
institution in Japan particularly for juvenile. Secondly, I want to know
whether restorative justice idea can be implemented in Japan, particularly within
JTS.
JTS in Japan is different with most
of correctional institution for juvenile (Lembaga Pemasyarakatan (Lapas)
Anak) in Indonesia. As I mentioned previously, Japan has about 52 JTS while
Indonesia has only 17 juvenile correctional institutions. Ideally, according to
the new law of Juvenile Justice System Act in Indonesia, juvenile correctional institution in Indonesia
should be formed in each prefecture, which means there actually should be 33 Lapas
Anak in Indonesia.
Konan Gakuin
Konan Gakuin has a literal meaning
as Konan Academy or Konan School. The naming of correctional institution for
juvenile is a critical factor for the development of mental education for the
juvenile. Therefore name such Konan Gakuin or other name instead of prison or
correctional institution is a wise effort to avoid the stigmatization and
labelling theory that exist in society that is typically associating juvenile with
criminal or bad person. Therefore Konan Gakuin term will reduce the stigma that
juvenile is a bad person. In term of Indonesia, the term of Lembaga
Pemasyarakatan Anak or Lapas Anak (literally means Juvenile
Correctional Institution) has been changed to Lembaga Pembinaan Khusus Anak
(LPKA) or literally means Juvenile Special Development Institution.
However, according to Nils Christie, a Norwegian criminologist, whatever the
name remains the same, i.e. imposing suffering. Christie wants to emphasise
that prison (or whatever the name) brings negative impact to its inmate, but in
my view, the effort of changing the name of prison, jail, and correctional
institution, may reduce the negative impact.
In respect to Japan, JTS was
first-time formed in 1924 in Tokyo. JTS is designed for juvenile who committed
delinquency to be educated in order to become a better person. Male and female
in JTS is separated. There is no female inmate in Konan Gakuin. If there is
female that committed a delinquency in Hokoriku area and decided to be
sentenced then she will be sent to JTS in Osaka. In Japan the age of criminal
responsibility for juvenile is set from 14 to 19 years old whereas in Indonesia
is stipulated from 12 to 17 year-old.
In Konan Gakuin JTS, we were
welcomed by Endo Hideaki, the Head of Konan Gakuin JTS. Hideaki explained the
JTS in general perspective and Konan Gakuin as particular example of JTS.
I should say that JTS in Japan is
well-planned and well-designed in order to achieve the goal, to re-educate
juvenile so they can live together within Japanese society. In the context of Konan
Gakuin JTS, the training school is equipped with many facilities to measure
that the juveniles get a good physical and mental education. For instance I see
that Konan Gakuin has a swimming pool, multipurpose indoor-gymnasium, outdoor
field for sport and planting crop, classroom, handicraft room, dining room,
workshop, computer laboratory etc.
The inmate capacity in Konan Gakuin
JTS is 50 inmates. Currently it has 25 inmates with three cases: maltreatment,
theft and drug as the three high rank cases respectively. In case of drug,
juvenile has been targeted by mafia to be a drug user or courier so the mafia
can easily cut the link of crime chain that connect them when the juvenile get
caught.
A new inmate will be placed in a
quarantine-cell which can be locked from outside only. The quarantine-cell is
very clean and has sufficient air circulation system and window that allows
sunlight to shine the cell. It has a bed with futon, table and fan. Once the inmate
is determined to be ready for socializing with others, he will be moved to a
juvenile room. Interestingly, the room has no outside and inside lock. Konan
Gakuin uses sliding door (a typical door in Japan) for the room, therefore I
can not say that it is a cell since the juvenile can freely move inside and
outside the room within particular block. For me it is just like a student
dormitory which is good for juvenile mental development. Like the
quarantine-cell, the juvenile room is also very neat, bright and not too
narrow. It reminds me to the typical cell in Sweden as presented by Prof Jerzy
Sarnecki, a criminologist from Stockholm University, at the 5th
Annual Conference of Asian Criminological Society, in India. The lay out of the
juvenile room in Japan is similar to prison in Sweden. It seems that most of
developed country has the same standard as recommended by International
conventions which seems still hard to be fulfilled by most of developing
countries.
Regardless the facility, another
important thing to be discussed in juvenile justice system is the relation
between the victim and offender. Recently the conventional juvenile justice
system has been criticized. The critic is concerning with the victim’s need and
the offender’s responsibility to the victim. In criminal law field, this idea
is a relatively new notion. Typically, in conventional juvenile justice system,
the juvenile who commits delinquency has to responsible by serving his/her
punishment in a correctional institution such JTS. Victim’s voice has been
ignored in this system. A new idea tries to fill this gap. The idea is called
restorative justice (修復的司法).
Restorative Justice
The core idea of restorative
justice is to restore the victim, the offender and (if appropriate) the
community that affected by crime. The term of restorative justice was used for
the first time by Albert Eglash, a US psychologist who works in a prison, in
his article in 1975. To date, restorative justice has been employed in many
countries. In its development, restorative justice is evolving in many forms.
Two of the forms are diversionary system and therapeutic system. Diversionary system
means that the restorative justice program is used before a trial as an
alternative means in lieu of trial. In relation to this, Indonesia is going to
employ diversionary system for juvenile in the end of July 2014. The other
form, therapeutic system, means that the restorative justice program is
operated after the trial when the offender is serving his/her punishment. In
this part I want to focus on the latest, i.e., therapeutic.
There are several restorative
justice programs in many countries that can be categorized as therapeutic system.
For instance there is a program called Victim Voice Heard (VVH) in Delaware
(US) or Victim-Offender Conference (VOC) in West Australia. The both program is
similar one another, they operate when the offender is being imprisoned. There
are two benefits of these programs, for the victim and for the offender. On the
victim side, the victim is allowed to meet the offender to express his/her
feeling regarding the crime. To understand why s/he became the victim, why the
offender chose him/her as the victim. To know that the offender regrets from
what s/he has done. On the other side, the offender is allowed to meet his/her
victim to show his remorse and repentance. The offender also has a chance to
apologize to the victim and to release his/her burden of guilty feeling.
However, this program needs a voluntary consent of the parties, particularly
the victim. The conference or the mediation can be held only if the victim
demands for it and in the same way the offender agrees to meet. In order to
hold the conference or mediation, a long preparation should be conducted prior
to the meeting. There are many ways to prepare. One of which is by writing
letter from the victim to the offender and vice versa. The mediator should
deliver the letters and discuss it with the victim and offender separately
until the mediator is sure that they both are ready to meet.
In relation to Japan, Yukiko
Yamada, a lawyer who studies restorative justice from Mark Umbreit in
Minnesota, has been developing restorative justice in Japan particularly in
Chiba prefecture. She formed a non-profit organization (NPO) and established a
Victim Offender Dialogue Program for juvenile in 2001. This program is actually
similar to VVH in Delaware and VOC in West Australia which I previously mentioned.
Frankly, in practical level, there are not so many victims that want to meet
the offender. In term of VVH for example, since the program began in 2002,
there were only 10 victim-offender dialogues occurred which was noted in data
collection until end of 2007 (the program is still on going) (Susan L. Miler,
2011: 214).
Interestingly, there are still many
forms of restorative justice programs which lighter than VVH of VOC. The
program is named indirect mediation. This program is developed in the way of thinking
that not all victims want to meet their offenders but still want to get the
benefit of restorative justice such apology or practical reparation. In this
program the mediator become a representative of each party to deliver the both
parties interest particularly the victim. According to Lyle Keanini, compared with direct mediation and conference, indirect
mediation was less personal, did not allow victims' more emotional needs to be
satisfied, was less effective in breaking down stereotypes and increasing
understanding, and may be less influential in reforming offenders (12
Asian-Pac. L. & Pol'y J. 174). In my view, in the context of Japan,
indirect mediation will be more suitable particularly if the victim is also a
minor. In the case of minor as the victim, the victims may be accompanied by
their parents to express and deliver their need to mediator and the same way
goes for the juvenile, they can also be accompanied by their parents.
In sum the
selection of restorative justice programs vary from country to country. It
depends on many factors particularly the culture of a country. In my view,
indirect mediation will be a good start to become an initiative project of
restorative justice in order to achieve the satisfaction of parties especially
the victim in Japan.
