No.119 Formulation of recidivism prevention promotion plan and recidivism prevention symposium

The number of criminal offenses recognized in Japan has reached a post-war record high every year since 1996, and reached its peak in 2002. In 2003, the country established the Ministerial Council on Anti-Crime Measures, and as a result of focusing on crime control as an urgent issue, the number of crimes has been decreasing continuously since 2003.
At that time, Inagi City was also experiencing a similar increase in crime in the city, so in 2005, the ``Safe and Secure Town Development Promotion Council'' was established, and only the Tama Chuo Police Station, Tama Inagi Crime Prevention Association, and City Hall were involved. In addition, we have promoted proactive crime prevention activities through collaboration with various local citizen groups, including neighborhood associations.
As a result, we were able to significantly reduce crime in the city, and in 2020, the total number of criminal law offenses recognized was 304 per year, ranking third among Tokyo's 23 wards and 26 cities, and the number of criminal law criminals recognized per 1,000 people. The number of cases was 3.32, ranking second in the same ranking, making it a safe city.
However, while the total number of crimes continues to decline, the proportion of repeat offenders among those arrested continues to rise nationwide, and recently this repeat offender rate has reached approximately 50%.
Therefore, in December 2016, the "Act on Promotion of Recidivism Prevention, etc." was enacted. According to the provisions of this law, the government is required to formulate a ``recidivism prevention promotion plan,'' and prefectures and municipalities are obligated to make efforts to formulate ``local recidivism prevention promotion plans.''
Under these circumstances, in August 2019, the national government issued the "Guidelines for Formulating Local Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plans," and in July of the same year, the "Tokyo Metropolitan Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plan" was announced, and Inagi City formulated the plan. has also become an issue.
By the way, probation, which helps people who have committed crimes to be reintegrated into society after they have made amends, is carried out by the collaboration of probation officers, who are national public servants, and volunteer probation officers. The Tokyo Probation Office, to which Inagi City belongs, has jurisdiction over the Hino, Tama, and Inagi Conservation Areas, and probation officers also work together within the same jurisdiction. Not all repeat offenders are eligible for probation. However, in formulating the recidivism prevention promotion plan, I felt the need to collaborate with the probation officers, who regularly provide support in the field to prevent recidivism.
Therefore, we proposed to the mayors of Hino City and Tama City that we consider formulating a recidivism prevention promotion plan jointly with Hino City and Tama City, which are in the same protection area, with the participation and cooperation of probation officers, and they gladly agreed. Ta.
In August 2019, the three cities jointly held a meeting to formulate a plan to prevent repeat offenses at Inagi City Hall, and discussions have continued since then.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to formulate a common plan for the three cities this time, due to differences in the procedures for formulating administrative plans in each city. However, during the deliberation process, teachers from the Hino, Tama, and Inagi district conservation officers participated, and in January of this year, we were able to formulate a common philosophy for the three cities when formulating the plan.
In the future, each of the three cities will formulate a recidivism prevention promotion plan based on this common philosophy, but this joint study of plan formulation with neighboring cities is unprecedented, and requires wide-area administrative cooperation and wide-area I am proud that this was a good example of citizen cooperation. In order to advance this initiative, a recidivism prevention symposium was held jointly by Hino, Tama, and Inagi cities on October 29th at the Tama City Sekido Community Center.
The keynote speaker and panelist were Ms. Atsuko Muraki, former Vice-Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare; the speaker and panelist was Ms. Akiko Miyake, representative of Human Comedy Co., Ltd., which launched the inmate recruitment magazine ``Chance!''; and the facilitator was Kokushikan University. We welcomed Professor Bunri Tatsuno and held the event on a grand scale.
In the future, by collaborating with the three cities, we will promote the creation of a safe and secure city where crime will not occur or occur, and we will also work with probation officers to promote the prevention of recidivism.