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Jail is not top of most people's bucket list of places to visit, but for some it is becoming increasingly attractive. I had heard anecdotal stories of homeless in the UK committing petty crimes in the hope of being given a warm bed and a meal, but in Japan it seems that the elderly are taking things to a whole new level:
Japan is in the grip of an elderly crime wave - the proportion of crimes committed by people over the age of 65 has been steadily increasing for 20 years. The BBC's Ed Butler asks why.
At a halfway house in Hiroshima - for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community - 69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.
"I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me - perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail," he says.
"So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: 'Look, I took this.'"
The plan worked. This was Toshio's first offence, committed when he was 62, but Japanese courts treat petty theft seriously, so it was enough to get him a one-year sentence.
Small, slender, and with a tendency to giggle, Toshio looks nothing like a habitual criminal, much less someone who'd threaten women with knives. But after he was released from his first sentence, that's exactly what he did.
"I went to a park and just threatened them. I wasn't intending to do any harm. I just showed the knife to them hoping one of them would call the police. One did."
Altogether, Toshio has spent half of the last eight years in jail.
I ask him if he likes being in prison, and he points out an additional financial upside - his pension continues to be paid even while he's inside.
"It's not that I like it but I can stay there for free," he says. "And when I get out I have saved some money. So it is not that painful."
Toshio represents a striking trend in Japanese crime. In a remarkably law-abiding society, a rapidly growing proportion of crimes is carried about by over-65s. In 1997 this age group accounted for about one in 20 convictions but 20 years later the figure had grown to more than one in five - a rate that far outstrips the growth of the over-65s as a proportion of the population (though they now make up more than a quarter of the total).
To my mind, there is something wrong with the way we take care of the elderly or those who are significantly poorer than the average when their most attractive option is jail.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 01 2019, @02:15PM (3 children)
I've got 2 kids who are going to be dependent (in differing degrees) on the social support systems when we die - all else being equal, they're going to have 40 years or so where we can't directly support them, and 30 years or so when we're just dead... There's no way in hell (barring a large lottery win) that I will ever be able to leave a trust with enough funding in it to provide for their care for 30 years, and so far there's not any parallel path family (cousins, etc.) who are going to do anything for them when we're gone.
We deal with school administrators, policies, etc. that basically try to shove them in a corner and ignore them (taking a bad situation and making it worse) until they age out of the school system (at 21/22) and either live with us, or ultimately in jail if we won't keep them - and the older (now 17) just might have to navigate that system sooner than later on his own if he continues to physically challenge us - we're just two people, and not physically able to provide 24-7-365 support for him - not to mention handling the more challenging one while trying to help his younger brother grow to a state where he might be independent in the future.
Oh, as for our own retirement - my wife will never retire, her full time job now and forever is the kids, and I'm trying to plan the next 20 years or so such that I can continue earning good income through my early 70s. With only 10-20 years of post retirement to fund, I may actually be able to save enough to keep us out of social services until we're physically unable to handle life and the kids.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday February 01 2019, @05:54PM (2 children)
Ah yes, as for me, my wife is disabled and has been for 15 years, I will likely die at work.
An uncovered emergency surgery for me a few years ago means I'm still several years from paid off on it. So that pretty well wiped out my savings. Like you I hope to be able to save enough to retire for a few years before the ol' ticker winds down. Maybe another 15 and semi-retire at 75 if I make it.
Fortunately all my kids are out of the house.
Of my 3 children 1 died at 26 of a drug overdose, 1 was ADD and the 3rd was thankfully without any major problems. We had run-ins with the school administrators ourselves for similar reasons, the policy seemed to be dope 'em up stick 'em in the corner and pass 'em without teaching them anything. I never had quite the problems you have currently, but enough of a taste to know how fucked up the system is.
Of 5 grandchildren, 1 is severely Autistic with body morphology problems, 1 is ADD and a 3rd has Aspergers. So my children are closer to your situation than I ever was.
Yeah, ain't what I envisioned either.
I wish you the very best, and may we both win the lottery...(:
(sorry if that rambled a bit, tough day at work, my boss is out for 10 months for a shoulder surgery so the C level bowl tech and I (B level tech but computer hardware nerd that my boss just can't do) are trying to fill our roles and I'm trying to fill in for the A tech.
*note* Bowl techs are pinsetter mechanics at a bowling center, we have to be mechanics, electricians and computer hardware techs and fabricators with a smattering of HVAC all rolled into one. True 'jack of all trades.' Without us, your favorite bowling center would be closed in about a week.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 02 2019, @02:02AM (1 child)
I'm pretty convinced that we were expelled from one school (2nd grade) specifically because we would not dope our kids up, and denied entry to several others for the same. Tried Rispordal on the older one when he turned 15, made him worse - now we're using Marinol "as needed" maybe 3 doses a month, it de-escalates him when you can see a problem coming, and things don't get bad if you miss a dose, because we're not giving it on a continuous basis.
As for "not teaching them anything" - yeah, the older one who demonstrated some 3 digit addition back in 2nd grade, but basically hasn't done more than counting since then, barely verbal, all but illegible handwriting... yeah, he's getting a 3.8 GPA in the standard high school courses like Pre-Algebra, History, English, etc. He got As in art without ever entering the art classroom and never doing any artwork.
My sympathies to you and your family. My wife's mother passed away recently and we discovered a flock of cousins who she never spoke with/about - 4/5 of their families have kids with autism, mostly in their 20s and 30s now. We thought it came down our male family lines, but her mother's family is much more full of it than her father's, and my mother's side is hard to judge since we're the only ones to have children down her side since my younger brother was born in the early 70s.
I've done a lot of work with smaller companies, so when you say "C level" I immediately think: CEO, CFO, CIO....
My first job saw me rise to VP of R&D (in a company of 6 employees, total) and still do programming work in C++. Then after 12 years with that place, it finally cratered financially and I was sitting in a park, unemployed, with my wife 6 months pregnant and a toddler - met another couple with a toddler, he just had a 2 year college degree and works for Johnson Controls doing PLC setups. Maybe I was paid better when I had work, but he had the more stable job, and didn't waste an additional 4+ years getting a MS degree. I finally "got bought" along with one of the small companies I was working for and the big company gave me a nice raise, better benefits, bonus, etc. so I've been hanging with them for 5+ years now, and plan to ride this bus as long as I can.
Best of luck to you and your kids especially. No matter where you are, it can always be worse. If "significant autism" is a 1% of the population incidence, our oldest is in the top 1% of that 1% for most severely challenging/impaired that we've met; but a friend of ours has a son just about his age who's even worse + has seizures - they're about 10 years younger than us, but you can tell it's taking a huge toll on them. And, then, neither of our families is trying to handle this as a single parent, but we know several that are - some by divorce, some by absence/neglect, and one by early death of a parent...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday February 02 2019, @01:58PM
The Autistic granddaughter with the body morphology problems has improved by leaps and bounds in a new school where she's more than the teachers 'problem child.' The change is so stunning as the new school actually works with her!
I in turn wish you the best as well and may we both see at least a few years of actual retirement!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.