(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
When David Smith, an American, arrived at
Fucho prison, the rules were explained to him in detail.
He had been arrested for smuggling drugs
into Japan and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
But Smith, 32 years old, kept forgetting
the rules.
For example, one time he opened his eyes
before he was told to at lunch time.
For this his hands were tied behind his
back for two days.
Following more incidents and more punishments,
Smith is now suing the Japanese government for $90,000.
For a modern and highly-civilised society,
the conditions in Japanese prisons seem to be incongruously
brutal.
Prisoners are routinely beaten for petty
offences or locked in tiny wooden cages for days on end.
The idea is to not only imprison the body,
but also the mind.
At Fuchu Prison, prisoners are only allowed
to talk in the evenings, cigarettes are banned and only
six books and one letter a month are allowed.
1.5% of Japan's prisoners are foreigners
and they are starting to fight back rather than accept this
treatment.
One Japanese professor of law said that
until Japanese prisons meet international standards, these
problems will get worse and worse.
However, with Japan's prison population
at less than 10% the average of the U.S. and half that of
Germany, it seems that the cruel conditions inside Japanese
prisons might be one of the things that help to make Japan
a safe, pleasant country to live in.
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