The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has warned the Justice Ministry of possible human rights violations in connection with seven sick prison inmates who died after being placed in solitary confinement between August 1999 and April 2003.
The federation asked the government Wednesday to investigate the causes of their deaths, provide prisoners with proper medical and psychiatric attention and to not put them in solitary confinement without careful consideration.
In one of the cases, a prison doctor diagnosed a 62-year-old inmate with early stage senile dementia after he was put into solitary for vandalism at a prison in Chiba Prefecture, but his medical condition was never addressed, the association said.
The inmate was reported to be banging his head against the walls and engaging in other odd behavior in the cell, whose temperature was between 5 and 10 on some days he was there. He later died of a heart attack.
"Many of the prisoners were suffering from mental illness or brain (and other) diseases and should have been given medical treatment, but instead they were put into protective cells," said Tetsuyoshi Kano, vice chairman of the federation.
The ministry told the association the cases were investigated and no known violation of criminal law was found, Kano said, adding the ministry admitted insufficient medical attention was given.