Unlike the Prison Warden Dictatorship in The Shawshank Redemption: Personnel Management of Prison Executives in Japan

• In Event: PWG - Power, identity, and abuse among prison staff

Abstract

This paper examines the personnel management of prison executives in Japan. It is well-known that Japan is one of the safest countries. Generally, Japanese prisons, which contributes to maintaining public security, have hold onto such strict discipline that there has been almost no riot and no prohibited goods (e.g., illegal drugs) dealing for a long period. While the work of street-level prison officers directly impacts prison security, discipline, and the rehabilitation of inmates, the policies adopted by individual prisons and the overall governance of those facilities also play significant roles. In the well-known prison film The Shawshank Redemption, the prison warden is depicted as engaging in corruption during a long-standing period of dictatorship. In contrast, Japanese correctional administration practices involve rotating prison wardens (governors) and other prison executives between different facilities every one to three years. Conversely, street-level prison officers typically remain in the same prison for the long term. As I reported at EUROCRIM 2024, a major prison reform, enacted in 2022 and set to be implemented in June 2025, aims to transform the previously uniform national correctional administration by granting greater discretion to prison governors and street-level prison officers. However, increased discretion may also lead to greater opportunities for misconduct. This raises the question: is the Japanese prison governance system robust or vulnerable to such reforms? This paper seeks to explain the personnel management of prison executives in Japan by using the data from the Annual Directory of Correctional Staff, which had been distributed to members of the Japanese Correctional Association until 2012.

Author

• Shunsuke Kyo, Chukyo University