Surrounded by lush greenery with a tranquil silence hanging in the air, it's easy to forget you're standing inside a juvenile correctional facility in western Tokyo — at least until you notice the walls surrounding the property that completely shut the center off from the outside world.
The Tama Juvenile Training School is one of the country's oldest and largest reformatories. Built in 1923, the facility is currently home to about 150 juvenile offenders, their ages ranging from 17 to around 20.
Yosuke Saito is one such resident. The 20-year-old has a checkered past, spending time in various facilities for offenses such as car theft and assault. Saito's most recent brush with the law — in which he coaxed money from the elderly by pretending to be a relative over the phone — has left him serving time in a correctional center for the first time.
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