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Nowhere to go

5 July 2007 :: by Yasuo Ota and Etsuko Akuzawa

A 57-year-old woman from Oita had spent years living on the streets and been repeatedly in and out of prison. One time, after serving out a sentence, she found herself with little money and no place to go.

After living outdoors, she decided on a sure way to find accommodation: She set fire to a car.

"I didn't like being a homeless person. I thought I could return to prison if I set a fire," she said.

The woman is representative of the many criminals with mental disabilities who have fallen through the cracks of the social safety net.

Welfare support is available to these released inmates with mental disabilities, but it can be extremely difficult to obtain. Their recidivism rate is high because many cannot receive help to make a living and adapt to society. Many say they have repeated their crimes because prison cells are the only places where they can stay.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare set up a research group a year ago to find ways to offer aftercare to these high-need offenders. But fixing the system will be an uphill battle.

Criminologist Koichi Hamai, a professor at Ryukoku University, said he was flabbergasted by the realities of the system when he worked with inmates at a prison from 2000 to 2003.

The inmates he dealt with were mostly seniors with physical or mental disabilities, including dementia.

"You find people who have no place in society quartered in our prisons," Hamai said. "The growing trend is to de-institutionalize the disabled, but only the location has changed. They are now segregated in prisons."

Of the 33,000 new prison inmates in 2005, 22.5 percent had an IQ of less than 70--which classifies them as mentally disabled.

A welfare ministry research group surveyed 410 inmates classified as or believed to be mentally disabled.

Thirty-seven percent cited "difficulty in making a living" as the motive for their crimes. Of the 285 repeat offenders, half of them said they did not have a place to stay in the outside world.

Only 6 percent were in possession of a ryoiku techo certificate that makes them eligible for public disability pensions or welfare support in group homes.

The 57-year-old firestarter, who has a mild mental disability, also lacked a ryoiku techo certificate.

After graduating from junior high school, she found a job, got married and divorced, and became homeless in her 40s.

When she was released in May after serving her 18-month term for the arson, she found a different life.

In February, the Nanko Airinkai welfare group for disabled people based in Unzen, Nagasaki Prefecture, began visiting the woman in prison. The group director is Yoshiaki Tajima, who heads the welfare ministry research group.

Nanko Airinkai sought out the woman as a test case to get the needy in touch with public welfare.

Oita city authorities wanted proof that she had mental disabilities before turning 18 years old. Finding the 40-year-old evidence was difficult, but in June, the group found the woman's brother, who vouched that she was showing signs of her disability in elementary school.

She was able to apply for her certificate. Others are not so fortunate.

In developed countries, an estimated 2 percent of their populations have mental disabilities. Therefore, there should be 2.5 million disabled people in Japan. But only 500,000 hold certificates.

Many forego applying for a certificate because they do not want to be officially labeled "disabled."

In addition, the criteria for issuing the certificates is left to the discretion of local governments. In many cases, authorities demand evidence that the disability emerged before the age of 18. That kind of proof can be impossible to find.

There are also problems for those who do enter the system.

In Yao, Osaka Prefecture, a 41-year old man suffering minor mental disabilities was arrested and indicted on charges of attempted murder for throwing a 3-year-old boy from an overpass in January.

The man had been in and out of prison for abducting children. His MO was always the same: He would snatch a child, ride a train together and appear at a police box a few hours later to be arrested.

When the man left prison in summer 1999, he began working at a self-help workshop in Yao. City authorities did not notify the workshop about the man's criminal record, saying it was "the ultimate personal information."

The head of the workshop only found out about the employee's problem when he was arrested for the sixth time in 2000 for abducting a child.

After his release, the workshop ensured a "helper" would supervise the man on weekends to prevent recidivism.

The man was initially classified as having a grade 2 disability under the law for supporting people with disabilities. Services are provided for all disabled people classified under the system.

But the system tends to provide less support for people with mental disabilities because the emphasis is placed on a person's degree of independence and physical ability.

Although the man's classification was eventually upgraded to grade 3, he was eligible for only 50 to 70 minutes of support and care a day--on a group basis.

Under the independence support law, prefectural independence support centers have been set up to allow any disabled person who displays problem behavior to move in. Group consultations involving psychotherapists and doctors are held to devise individual support plans for the disabled people.

The centers must first receive a petition from a municipal government before the mentally disabled person is let in.

The man became emotionally unbalanced last summer, and the head of the workshop wrote to the city, asking for a private support plan.

But the city failed to file a petition and the 3-year-old boy was thrown off the overpass.

"There are plenty of welfare measures for the mentally disabled in the fields of education and child welfare. But that ends at 18," Hiroshi Shojima, professor of clinical psychology at Fukushima University Graduate School of Education, said. "From the viewpoint of social security, we need to provide support for the silent mentally disabled who won't come forward with their needs."

Source The Asahi Shimbun


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