Japan: Memories of an outlaw – Part Two · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

Following from the first part, here is the anonymous blogger's description of his life in jail and his transition back into society.
By Mrhayata, CC License.
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Life at the detention center
There were ten people in my cell which was meant for seven; it is one of the consequences of prison overcrowding.
I immediately became anxious as the  people here looked like they could be more difficult than those in the police cells.. Will I be able to make it here? Well..I guess I have no choice…
Since it's a communal life, there are many rules and each cell has its own character. There is a fixed order for cleaning and chores, and the toilet cleaning is done by the latest arrival.  Depending on when a new prisoner would come you could have to do the toilet cleaning only once but I had to do it for one week…
I had heard it before but it's really true that those who get arrested for rape or indecent assault are bullied in prison. There were a bunch of them and at worst they had their stuff stolen or they were kicked or had  their nose broken…A detention center is really a scary place.
The first impression matters and if you become someone to make fun of then you'll be bullied.
In other words, since they have nothing else to do, it’s usual that things go in that way. What people say or do is not that much different from the way primary school kids behave. I also said a lot of stupid things, but similar to my primary school days, I didn't bully anyone and wasn't bullied myself.
As far as I remember these were the crimes of the people in my cell: injurious assault, robbery, drug related crimes, DVD black market, rape, indecent assault, public nuisance (stalker), arson, illegal gambling, use of underage  prostitutes, falsification of official documents, fraud, counterfeiting, burglary, blackmail, threats, forcible obstruction of business, trespassing and violation of the gun control law…
Exercise time was once every 2 days though it’s not compulsory to have to go out. Even though it is called exercise it means about 50 people walking in circle for about 20 minutes in a 20 square-meter narrow space of the building where almost no sunshine gets through.
No running. No talking. In this every center is different but during these 20 minutes we were allowed to cut our nails. Since there were only a few nail cutters, as soon as the ‘exercise time – start’ was announced those who wanted to be first would run as fast as they could to the guy in charge of keeping the nail-cutters.
As the nail cuttings were then left in the corner of the exercise-ground it was really disgusting.
Those in confinement cells would have their exercise time up on the roof in a fenced space called ‘the bird cage’. I preferred that as a nail-cutter is not something worth fighting for and, I particularly liked  the view which was really nice. I could only see a small piece of the landscape but seeing the town I knew and the trains running made me feel the freedom beyond the walls…
This is what I learnt during my time in prison. The real yakuza don't touch the honest people and take care of the others. The henchmen and the thugs act dishonestly and are arrogant and childish. Surprisingly, there are many North Korean yakuza. In the Tokyo prison there were many such thugs, and I hated it.
I heard a lot of underground stories and they were really interesting.  Having only experienced life as a salaryman, there were so many things that I didn't know.
Until that time I had thought that my life was normal but I got to learn that there is no such a thing as a ‘normal’ life. Everyone's daily life is normal…
One year after I entered the prison, I was given a sentence of four years and six months and it was a shock for me. The guy of the center tried to comfort me by saying: “Considering your crime, you muddled through”, but even with good behavior it would only have been three years and ten months so it seemed like a very long time….
I was torn between appealing or not but given that my parents strongly wished me to, I decided to appeal. At this point, my transfer to the Tokyo penitentiary was decided.
The first trial is usually held at the local court of each prefecture or district but since the appeal court of the area where I was is the Tokyo High Court, the jurisdiction was Tokyo.
So my pleasant life in a single cell was over. At the new place I made a request to have a single cell, like in the previous detention center, but it was denied.
Where they put me was once again a community cell…
The Tokyo detention center was different from the other one as the structure was new and it was in a multistory building equipped with air-conditioning and heating…
The most difficult thing for me during my life in prison was living together with complete strangers.
Fellow criminals meeting for the first time means trouble and for someone like me who's uncomfortable with groups of people, there was nothing more painful than that. Even without realizing it, I accumulated a lot of stress by constantly living with other people.
I almost became depressed. I told myself that also this is part of the punishment and I lived with it but so many times I was very close to being driven mad by those selfish people. From a normal person's point of view though, I'm probably the same as them.
During a visit when I saw my mother pleading with  the officer on guard saying “Can't you please let him have a single cell?”, a tear dropped from my eyes.
It's undeniable that my family was also a ‘victim’..
For the rest of my life, I will never be able to raise my head to my parents again….
Outside the walls
I also thought that as soon as I was outside I would have eaten this and that but this wasn’t the case. Even now, I end up buying the same snacks or cup-noodles I used to eat in prison. Even those that for a normal person are just snacks, for me they have the taste of prison…
A Stain