No.119 Development of the Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plan and Recidivism Prevention Symposium

The number of recognized criminal offenses in our country recorded the highest levels since the post-war period every year since 1996, peaking in 2002. In 2003, the government established the Crime Prevention Ministerial Meeting and focused on the urgent issue of crime suppression, resulting in a continuous decrease since 2003.

In Inagi City, at that time, there was also an increase in crime occurrences within the city. Therefore, in 2005, we established the "Safety and Security Community Development Promotion Council". This council includes not only the Tama Central Police Station, the Tama Inagi Crime Prevention Association, and City Hall, but also various local citizen groups, starting with the Neighborhood Association, to promote proactive crime prevention activities through Collaboration.

As a result, we were able to significantly reduce crime in the city, with a total of 304 reported criminal offenses in 2020, ranking third among the 23 wards and 26 cities in Tokyo. The number of reported criminal offenses per 1,000 population was 3.32, ranking second, making it a safe city.
However, while the total number of crimes continues to decrease, the proportion of repeat offenders among those arrested has consistently risen nationwide, and recently this rate of repeat offenders has reached about 50%.

In December 2016, the "Act on Promotion of Prevention of Recidivism" was enacted. Under 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 a "Local Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plan."

In this context, in August of the first year of Reiwa, the national government issued the "Guidelines for Formulating Local Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plans," and in July of the same year, the "Tokyo Recidivism Prevention Promotion Plan" was announced, making the formulation of a plan in Inagi City a challenge.

By the way, the support for reintegrating individuals who have committed crimes back into society after they have completed their restitution is carried out through collaboration between probation officers, who are national civil servants, and volunteer probation supervisors. The jurisdiction of the Tokyo Probation Office, to which Inagi City belongs, includes the Hino, Tama, and Inagi probation districts, and the probation supervisor association also collaborates within the same area. Not all individuals who reoffend are subject to probation measures. However, I felt the necessity to collaborate with the probation supervisors who are regularly providing support for crime prevention in the field while formulating the crime prevention promotion plan.

Therefore, considering the participation and collaboration of probation officers, I proposed to the mayors of Hino City and Tama City, which are in the same protection area, to jointly consider the formulation of a recidivism prevention promotion plan, and they kindly agreed.

In August of the first year of Reiwa, a planning meeting for the prevention of recidivism was held at Inagi City Hall with the collaboration of three cities, and discussions have continued since then.

Unfortunately, this time, due to reasons such as the different procedures for formulating administrative plans in each city, we were unable to create a common plan for the three cities. However, during the examination process, we were able to involve the instructors from the Hino, Tama, and Inagi District Probation Officers Association, and in January of this year, we were able to summarize a common philosophy for the three cities in formulating the plan.

In the future, based on this common philosophy, each of the three cities will formulate their respective recidivism prevention promotion plans. However, the consideration of planning in collaboration with neighboring cities is unprecedented and I take pride in the fact that it has become a good example of wide-area administrative cooperation and wide-area citizen collaboration. To advance this initiative, on October 29, we held a recidivism prevention symposium jointly organized by Hino, Tama City, and Inagi at the Tama City Sekido Community Center.

The keynote speech and panelists included Akiko Muraki, former Deputy Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, and Akiko Miyake, representative of Human Comedy Co., Ltd., who launched the job magazine for inmates "Chance!" The facilitator was Professor Bunri Tatsuno from Kokushikan University, and the event was held grandly.

In the future, we will promote the creation of a safe city where crimes are not committed or allowed, through collaboration among the three cities, and we will also work with the probation officer association to strive for the prevention of recidivism.