2011 Volume 36 Pages 28-41
This paper examines the question of how Japanese reform schools should be viewed in the context of building an inclusive society. In contrast to the conservative view that tends to demonize juvenile offenders, taking our cue from J. Young, we consider troubled youth as individuals with the capacity of becoming "one of us" through education and training. With this in mind, we endeavor in this paper to not only describe how reform schools have succeeded in educating and training juvenile offenders but also to consider how we can respond in the future to conservative arguments. First, we describe the results of field investigations conducted by our group at reform schools over the past several years. Japanese reform schools, which have emphasized education and training since the late 1970s, have developed educational systems that are, in many aspects, unique, and have succeeded in their mission. We document a number of such successes through interviews and participatory observations. Next, we examine how reform schools have resolved various problematic issues up to this point. We briefly review new voluntary programs targeting former reformatory inmates and efforts to improve educational programs in reformatories, as well as attempts to reform laws and regulations related to reform schools. Finally, we identify the following as three essential areas for future improvement: (i) reform of the external social environment (outside of reform schools), i.e. employment and social welfare practices based on the principle of equality; (ii) improvement of education and training within reform schools; and (iii) generation of objective information regarding the actual state of reform schools based on more rigorous research.
