Training Of Prison Personnel In Japan: Century-old And Persistent

• Author: Elmer H. Johnson
• Published date: 01 March 1991
• Date: 01 March 1991
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/088740349100500103
• Subject Matter: Articles

29

Training

Of

Prison

Personnel

In

Japan:

Century-old

And

Persistent

Elmer

H.

Johnson

Southern

Illinois

University

At

Carbondale

Abstract

Japan

celebrated

in

1990

the

centennial

of

systematic

training

of

prison

personnel.

That

exceptional

accomplishment

is

linked

with

the

history

of

modernization

beginning

only

some

125

years

ago

with

the

Meiji

Restoration.

While

adapting

Western

social

institutions

to

Japanese

traditions,

the

reformers

introduced

new

laws

and

correctional

practices.

In

addition

to

this

unique

initiation,

inservice

training

enjoys

advantages

derived

from

special

charac-

teristics

of

corrections

in

Japan.

From

that

basis,

the

paper

traces

the

affects

of

factors

external

to

the

field

of

corrections

on

the

evolution

of

inservice

training.

The

nature

of

contemporary

programs

is

described.

CJPR,

VOL.

5,

NO.

1/91,

@IUP

As

with

all

people-processing

organizations,

correctional

agencies

are

only

as

effective

programmatically

in

implementing

policies

as

the

quality

of

their

personnel

allows.

The

correctional

agencies

of

Japan

merit

particular

attention

in

this

regard

because

the

unique

combination

of

features

to

be

described

below

provides

an

especially

apt

setting

for

sound

in-service

training.

Moreover,

given

the

relatively

brief

history

of

Japan’s

modernization

program,

systematic

in-service

training

of

prison

personnel

has

existed

for

a

remarkable

length

of

time.

The

evolution

of

the

training

program

over

time

has

reflected

the

influence

of

factors

external

to

correctional

agencies,

and

demonstrates

the

vulnerability

of

all

in-service

training

to

such

outside

influences.

The

integration

of

training

within

a

career

system

will

be

shown

in

the

course

of

describing

the

implementation

of

the

program

Outstanding

Features

Of

Japanese

Training

Informal

counseling

of

recruits

by

experienced

staff

members

fails

to

qualify

as

systematic

personnel

training.

Here

the

term

&dquo;systematic

personnel

training&dquo;

is

used

to

designate

a

program

with

these

characteristics:

an

inde-

pendent

facility

specializing

in

the

instruction

of

correctional

personnel,

a

core

faculty,

and

a

consciously

framed

curriculum,

all

serving

the

entire