A complaint of medical abuse, filed against a prison doctor by 22 inmates of a high security jail, has revived the wider issue of penitentiary reforms in a country that lays emphasis on rigorous discipline for repeat offenders.
Following a formal criminal complaint, filed against the chief medical officer and a male nurse on Feb 19, the entire medical establishment of the high security prison in the Tokushima prefecture has been brought under close scrutiny.

But what dismays rights activists is the fact that the alleged abuse at Tokushima had taken place despite efforts to reform the prison system and revise prison codes that date back more than a century and have been criticised by international human rights groups and the United Nations.

Accounts of prisoner abuse and cruel and unusual punishments are well documented and these practises have been attributed, by experts and rights activists, to the idea that the purpose of imprisonment is to punish rather than re-educate and rehabilitate.

Full story - IPS (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41492)