File photo : A sign reads “check door lock” on a gate inside Tochigi prison, Japan’s largest women’s prison,//Photo by Human Rights Watch
Tokyo, Japan – Handcuffs during pregnancy, separation from newborn babies, and insufficient care for elderly inmates are among the abuses suffered by women incarcerated in Japan, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
Female inmates are sometimes shackled during labour and immediately after birth, the international NGO alleged in a new report, based on interviews with nearly 60 formerly jailed women.
Japan’s ministry of justice denied some of the claims, saying that restraints are “not used when imprisoned women are breastfeeding, holding, bathing, or changing the baby’s diapers,” according to the report. It also said that “appropriate medical measures are taken for prisoners.”
When contacted by AFP, the justice ministry was not…
