An advisory panel to the justice minister will call on the government to improve correctional policies, and medical and human rights conditions inside prisons, according to a draft proposal unveiled Monday.
The draft, submitted to a Monday meeting of the Correctional Policy Reform Council, calls for the government to revise the 95-year-old Prison Law to underscore prisoners' rights and to limit the authority of guards while making the operation of prisons more flexible and transparent.
The panel, formed in March following revelations of assaults on inmates by guards at Nagoya Prison in 2001 and 2002, has been investigating and discussing the conditions of prisons in Japan.