Elderly people in Japan are getting arrested on purpose because they want to go to prison

Busiess Insider ^ | 3/19/2018 | Mark Abadi

[simpson96]

Japan has the world's oldest population, with more than a quarter of its citizens aged 65 or older.

The aging population has already put a strain on Japan's financial system and retail industry. But in recent years, another unexpected trend has been unfolding: In record numbers, elderly people in Japan are committing petty crimes so they can spend the rest of their days in prison.

According to Bloomberg, complaints and arrests involving older citizens are outpacing those of any other demographic in Japan, and the elderly crime rate has quadrupled over the past couple of decades.

In prisons, one out of every five inmates is a senior citizen. And in many cases — nine out of 10, for senior women — the crime that lands them in jail is petty shoplifting.

The unusual phenomenon stems from the difficulties of caring for the country's elderly population. The number of Japanese seniors living alone increased by 600% between 1985 and 2015, Bloomberg reported. Half of the seniors caught shoplifting reported living alone, the government discovered last year, and 40% of them said they either don't have family or rarely speak to them.

For these seniors, a life in jail is better than the alternative.

"They may have a house. They may have a family. But that doesn't mean they have a place they feel at home," Yumi Muranaka, head warden of Iwakuni Women's Prison, told Bloomberg.

(snip)...female inmates interviewed by Bloomberg suggested they feel a sense of community in prison that they never felt on the outside.

"I enjoy my life in prison more. There are always people around, and I don't feel lonely here. When I got out the second time, I promised that I wouldn't go back. But when I was out, I couldn't help feeling nostalgic,"

[redfreedom]

The property I mentioned was sold to a person unsuspecting of the full law. The law is that such property can be confiscated by the state from the new purchaser/owner and any and all moneys the new owner put out on that new property is lost. This guy had to go to court and fight like hell to prove he never knew the original owners and was just an innocent buyer.

We came very close to buying 10 acres from the neighbors as well. In our case, we’d have lost our money since we knew them.

I detest realtors, but both deals were done through ignorant lawyers. Realtors have to be aware of such law and sell title insurance, which in my opinion should have covered such a loss if the state took it away from the new owner.

[shoff]

I did some control work at Rikers Island (New York) and the word was that there were snow bird prisoners. They would go on a crime spree late summer early fall to get locked up for the winter. They were not elderly.