Why some Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

[GeoWilliam750]

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47033704

"Japan is in the grip of an elderly crime wave - the proportion of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 has been steadily increasing for 20 years. The BBC's Ed Butler asks why.

At a halfway house in Hiroshima - for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community - 69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.

"I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me - perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail," he says. "So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: 'Look, I took this.'"

The plan worked. This was Toshio's first offence, committed when he was 62, but Japanese courts treat petty theft seriously, so it was enough to get him a one-year sentence."



Three hots, a cot, heat, medical care, other people with whom to socialize, and their modest national pension continues to accumulate while they are in prison. However, the cost effectiveness seems a bit off on a larger societal basis.

[smirkymonkey]

1. This is really sad. Japan is a wealthy country too. Why are their elderly so desperate?

I could almost see this happening here if our prison conditions were not so brutal.