Local News

The Center for Promoting Self-Sufficiency and Rehabilitation, a facility run by the national government as a halfway house for prisoners who cannot be released from jail on parole because they have no families, opened in Kitakyushu on the 29th. It is the first public sector facility of its kind in Japan. There are six rooms for individual prisoners and four rooms for two prisoners each. Those prisoners who have demonstrated a good attitude during their incarceration and are judged to be eager to rehabilitate themselves will be eligible for three-month stays. They will be employed by companies who have signed up to cooperate with the program, and look for a place of their own to live. Their stay in the facility will be constantly monitored by prison officials.