Japan is preparing to make available 24 new correctional courses at prisons and other facilities ahead of the June 1 reform of imprisonment penalties that will change the focus of incarceration to preventing repeat offenses.
The revised Penal Code, which takes effect that day, will make imprisonment fully without penal work. The current system obliges some offenders to engage in such work depending on the sentence.
Marking the first significant change in criminal punishment since the Penal Code was established in 1907, Japan will shift the main objective of imprisonment from punishment to preventing repeat offenses. It aims to take more account of the individual characteristics of inmates.
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