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3 Treatment of offenders Urgent measures for preventing repeat offense were announced by the Ministry of Justice in February 2005. A variety of new approaches in the areas of both correction and rehabilitation have thus been developed, such as sharing information with the police on the release of inmates or on probationers/parolees whose whereabouts have become unknown, effective treatment through treatment programs for sex offenders, etc., and various measures to facilitate Comprehensive Employment Support Measures for Released Inmates, etc.With regard to the correction of adult offenders, and in response to recommendations made by the Correctional Administration Reform Council in December 2003, the Prison Act has been revised. First, the Inmates Treatment Act was enforced in May 2006. It was amended in June 2007 to provide treatment of presentenced inmates, etc. and the title of the act altered to the Act on Penal Detention Facilities and Treatment of Inmates and Detainees. This prompted a complete revision of the Prison Act. The revision clarified the rights and obligations of inmates and defined that the basic philosophy for treating inmates should be their rehabilitation and their smooth reintegration into society. In addition, various new treatment systems have been introduced and concrete measures for improving/enhancing the treatment of inmates are currently being even more strongly promoted (See Chapter 4, Part 2). With regard to rehabilitation, the recommendations made by the “Advisory Council on Reform of the Rehabilitation System” of June 2006 provided directions for overall reform of the current rehabilitation system. In accordance with those recommendations, the Offenders Rehabilitation Act, which reorganized and integrated the Offenders Prevention and Rehabilitation Act and the Act for Probationary Supervision of Persons under Suspension of Execution of Sentence, was approved in June 2007 and enforced in June 2008. This resulted in measures including review and enhancement of the conditions for probation/parole supervision for improving and strengthening probation/parole supervision, improvement of living environment adjustments to assist reintegration into society, and obligation to join specialized treatment programs for sex offenders based on the conditions for probation/parole supervision, etc. (See Chapter 5, Part 2). |