Open Prisons in the Japanese Manner

Abstract

ABSTRACT The nature and functions of five open facilities of Japan's Correction Bureau are placed within the context of comparative criminal justice. As for open prisons about the world, they depart from the “principle of containment” in ways shaped by the sociocultural system of the given society. Effects of war offer remarkable opportunities for penological change that have been seized by pioneering individuals in Japan and elsewhere. The several open units in Japan illustrate the grounding of prison operations in the unique features of Japan's sociocultural system.