Photo/Illutration Inmates at work in Tottori in December 2022 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

For crime victims and their families, expressing their thoughts and feelings to the inmates is an important part of their rehabilitation while in incarceration. 

So, Tadaari Katayama is working to help implement a new system that starts Dec. 1 to convey the sentiments of crime victims to prisoners and juvenile offenders.

Katayama, 67, lost his second son, an elementary school second-grader, in a hit-and-run accident in 1997.

Katayama served as the instructor for a Justice Ministry training session in October for prison officers to practice passing on the feelings they had gathered from the victims to the perpetrators. 

He has conveyed the thoughts and feelings of victims' families to inmates in prisons and juvenile correctional facilities, and has seen some prisoners reflect on their crimes with tears in their eyes.

Katayama said for the rehabilitation of inmates, it is particularly important to know the feelings of the victims of the crimes they were involved in, but until now, there have been few opportunities to learn about them.

"It is an extremely significant change for the victims (of the cases) to be able to tell (the perpetrators) how we feel,” Katayama said.

In the past, there has been a system of informing perpetrators on probation of such sentiments, but the scope will be expanded to include prisoners.

The aim is to make them face up to the damage caused by their crimes and rehabilitate them before they return to society.

In principle, the new "victim officers" to be assigned in prisons and juvenile correctional institutions nationwide will interview victims who wish to be interviewed and compile their feelings into a written report.

The report will then be read to the perpetrators and used for individual treatment and education.

Victims who wish to receive this information will also be informed in writing of the perpetrators' reactions and comments when the document is read to them.

All cases will be covered, without excluding any based on the nature of the crime.

However, it will not apply to instances where there is a possibility of retaliation, such as crimes related to gang wars, or where there is a risk of recrimination.

The system of conveying victims’ sentiments to perpetrators on probation began in 2007 and has been used in more than 150 cases annually in recent years.

In one instance, after a victim in a special fraud case wanted an apology and for the offender to be rehabilitated, the perpetrator responded and offered to compensate the victim for the damage, in addition to apologizing.

The new system was incorporated into the revised Penal Code enacted last year.

The revision focuses on shifting the purpose of punishment from "chastisement" to "recovery."

A senior Justice Ministry official noted, "Prison officials have tended to focus on maintaining order in their penal institutions, but from now on, they will be more required to encourage rehabilitation and educating the offenders."

The official said that prison officers have had few opportunities to interact with victims and hopes “the new system will serve as a catalyst for a change in attitudes in the field.”

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