Correctional administration is nationally managed by the Correction Bureau as an internal subdivision of the Ministry of Justice.
  To divide the duties of the Correction Bureau,eight Regional Correction Headquarters are set up in accordance with High Courts,High Public Prosecutors Offices,and Regional Parole Boards,and supervise correctional institutions in their regions.
  Correctional institutions include prisons,juvenile prisons,detention houses,juvenile training schools,juvenile classification homes and a women's guidance home.Among them,prisons,juvenile prisons,and detention houses are collectively called penal institutions.
  Prisons and juvenile prisons house those offenders sentenced to imprisonment with or without labor and those sentenced to penal detention for the execution of their sentences and provide necessary treatment for them.Detention houses mainly house inmates awaiting trial(defendants and suspects in detention;hereinafter the same).Some prisons(Tochigi,Kasamatsu,Wakayama,Iwakuni,Fumoto,and Sapporo Branch Prison)house only female inmates,and four medical prisons provide medical care to inmates with physical or mental disorders.
  Penal institutions have workhouses in which offenders who are unable to pay fines or minor fines are detained,and except for some institutions also have houses of Kanchi confinement in which persons subject to confinement as the punishment for contempt of court(Kanchi confinement)under the provision of Article2of the Law for Maintenance of Order in Court-Room(Law No.286of1952)etc.are detained.
  As of April1,2004,there were74penal institutions(59prisons,eight juvenile prisons and seven detention houses)and115branches(five prison branches and110branch detention houses).Staff who work at penal institutions are prison officers(officials with custodial authority under the Prison Law)as well as technical and educational officers.The fixed number of staff for FY2004 was17,378.