Death row inmates treated cruelly in Japan

Japan Herald ~Thursday 10th September, 2009

Death row prisoners in Japan have been driven toward insanity by harsh conditions.

Human rights group Amnesty International has reported a total of 102 prisoners face execution in Japan.

Many of the death row prisoners have spent decades in near isolation, creating severe mental illness for many of them.

Death row prisoners are not allowed to speak to other inmates.

They are not allowed to move around their cells and must remain seated.

Amnesty has claimed the treatment has made many of the prisoners delusional.

The group has also complained that the Japanese have a practice of informing prisoners only a few hours before execution is carried out.

With the imposition of the death penalty on mentally ill people prohibited throughout the world, Amnesty has called on Japan to immediately halt all executions.

It has also asked for police interrogation reform in a country where criminal trials have a 99% conviction rate.