KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. (Kyodo) The Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch ordered the state Wednesday to pay 200,000 yen in damages to a former Kanazawa Prison inmate for not posting two letters he wrote to his lawyer in 2003 about a damages suit he wanted to file against the facility.
The court cut the amount from the 300,000 yen ordered paid in May 2005 by the Kanazawa District Court, which said it was illegal for the prison not to mail the letters and to have punished Yuki Kizawa, 36, for fighting with another inmate -- the subject of his letters.
Kizawa got into a fight with the other inmate in the prison cafeteria in April 2003, and he was punished by having his work compensation cut by 1,500 yen. Inmate monthly pay is listed as 3,833 yen in the current fiscal budget.
Kizawa filed a suit seeking 2 million yen in damages from the state in June 2003.
The high court partly overturned the district courting ruling and said the punishment was legitimate.
"The plaintiff hit the other inmate's hand to fight back and that act is not considered to be one of self-defense," high court presiding Judge Eikichi Nagato said.