Daiyo kangoku (daiyō kangoku 代用監獄) is a Japanese legal term meaning "substitute prison." Daiyō kangoku are detention cells found in police stations which are used as legal substitutes for detention centers, or prisons. The practical difference lies in the supervision of daiyō kangoku by the police forces, whereas detention centers are supervised by a professional corps of prison guards that are not involved in the investigative processes. A typical suburban police station in the United States (this one is in San Bruno, California). ... Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick, Canada is an institution that is part of Corrections Canada. ... A cell and galleries at Londons Newgate Prison in 1896. ...

Daiyō kangoku came about to solve a shortage of prison cells in Japan in 1908. Though no shortage exists today, the practice has continued and has significant political support (Matsubara 2004). It has been controversial, however, because of its role in eliciting confessions from Japanese criminal suspects. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ...

Controversy

In the Japanese criminal justice system, suspects can be detained for as many as seventy-two hours under the standards of habeas corpus also present in the United States and other countries. After this seventy-two hour period, however, Japanese prosecutors and police (both have investigative responsibilities) can request the further ten days' detention of the suspect. These ten days are frequently used by the investigative authorities to elicit confessions from the suspect. During this time the suspect has limited access to counsel. He may assert a right to silence, but he cannot end the interrogation, or "interview," as it is termed by Japanese authorities. The authorities have a great deal of control over the suspect's well-being, and can restrict meals or access to family. Intensive interrogation practices are often used, and the condition of daiyō kangoku are considered worse than those in Japanese regular detention centers (Saito 179). Should more time be required to elicit a confession ("unavoidable delay" in Japanese legal terminology), the public prosecutor can request a further ten days of detention. This amounts to twenty-three days of legal detention without charges filed, a possibility which has made human rights and civil liberties activists in Japan question the appropriateness of the system. Three basic features of Japans system of criminal justice characterize its operations. ... In common law, habeas corpus (/heɪbiÉ™s kɔɹpÉ™s/) (Latin: [We command that] you have the body) is the name of a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. ... The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries adopting the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. ... Modern confessional in the Church of the Holy Name, Dunedin, New Zealand. ... Look up counsel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Requests by prosecutors for any form of extended detention are almost always granted; in 1987, the rate of approval for all requests was 99.8% (Miyazawa 20). That same year, 85% of arrested detainees were kept in daiyō kangoku facilities for longer than seventy-two hours; more than a third of suspects were held without charge for longer than ten days by a judge’s decision to extend the time limits (Saito 179). Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ...

References

• Matsubara, Hiroshi (Jun. 9, 2004). “Substitute Prison System Likely to Survive Revision.” Japan Times. Available: Lexis-Nexis.
• Miyazawa, Setsuo (1992). Policing in Japan: A Study on Making Crime, trans. Frank G. Bennett, Jr. with John O. Haley. Albany: SUNY Press.
• Oda, Hiroshi (1999). Japanese Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 423-424.
• Saito, Toyoji (1992). “Preventive Detention in Japan.” In Stanislaw Frankowski and Dinah Shelton (Eds.), Preventive Detention: A Comparative and International Law Perspective. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Press.