Ex-Marine decries nature of Japan prison work

[thedrifter]

Ex-Marine decries nature of Japan prison work


By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, July 18, 2004


CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — When Rodrico Harp was sentenced to seven years at hard labor for his part in the infamous abduction and rape of an Okinawa schoolgirl in 1995, he never thought he’d be assembling cell phones or making auto parts. That’s what he claims “hard labor” meant at Kurihama, the Japanese prison near Yokosuka where most American servicemen convicted in Japanese courts wind up.

“I made parts for Mazdas and Nissans,” Harp said during a telephone interview from his home in Griffin, Ga. “You had no choice. If you refused to work, they put you in what we called a chill box, a little cell with nothing in it, and they forced you to sit rigidly all day at a desk until it was time to eat and sleep.

“Sometimes, if they thought you were too rowdy or misbehaving or just not doing what they wanted you to do, they’d put you in a straitjacket in a padded room.”

That’s wrong, says Michael Griffith, a New York-based lawyer who specializes in defending Americans overseas.

“Japan is in gross violation of international law by forcing prisoners to work for commercial companies,” Griffith said via telephone from his Long Island home. “It amounts to slave labor, nothing less.”

Japan prison officials and legal experts disagree. “We do not necessarily see inmates engaging in manufacturing commercial products as a problem,” said Makoto Teranaka, executive director of Amnesty International Japan. “We hear arguments criticizing that the practice harms fair competitive market activities. However, products made by inmates are no cheaper than those made in the regular commercial environment. The differences in the price for the products that a company pays and the amount an inmate receives goes in the prison coffer. … Every prison is supposed to be self supporting,” he said.

In addition, Japanese officials say commercial products made in Japanese prisons aren’t exported to countries banning forced prison labor.

“Prison labor is a part of punishment,” said Teranaka. “Therefore, what inmates receive are not wages, but a financial incentive. What we see as a problem is that they work a full eight hours, which deprives them of any opportunities to receive counseling or other necessary treatment.”

Griffith, who represented the families of Harp and another defendant in the 1995 case, said American prisoners are forced to work eight hours a day for what amounts to about one dollar a day. They made auto parts and assembled cellular telephones, the former prisoners said.

“It’s in direct violation of the Forced Labor Convention of 1930, which prohibits the use of prisoners for outside contractors,” Griffith alleged.

The U.S. State Department lists Japan as a party to the convention. According to papers filed in a 1994 Congressional subcommittee hearing on the prison labor issue, Japan ratified the convention Nov. 31, 1932.

Harp was a 22-year-old Marine private first class when sentenced in March 1996 with Pfc. Kendrick Ledet, 21, and Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, 23, a medic, for raping a 12-year-old girl they abducted from a street corner in Kin village, just outside Camp Hansen. The incident occurred on Labor Day 1995.

Harp and Gill were sentenced to seven years and Ledet to 6½ years of hard labor. All three were released last year and dishonorably discharged.

According to Japanese prison officials, about 20 U.S. servicemembers are serving time in Kurihama prison. Their work assignments include kitchen work and cleaning cellblocks, or manufacturing commercial products.

Prison officials declined any further comment.

“While in prison they were working for a Japanese automaker, making emblems for the front hoods and fabricating headrests,” Griffith said. “Harp told me that when the U.S. military guys came in to visit them, the Japanese would take the labels off the boxes so they wouldn’t see who the prisoners were working for.”

Griffith hopes to pressure Congress to hold hearings on the matter, in much the same way two house subcommittees met in 1994 on the Japanese prison labor issue.

At that time Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, (D-NY), chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, was disheartened, he said, to hear the testimony of Christopher Lavinger, a client of Griffith sentenced to 16 months in a Fuchu prison on drug charges.

Lavinger told the congressmen he was struck with an electrified baton twice when he teetered from a rigid position on a chair where he was forced to sit nearly motionless for 12 hours a day after refusing to produce goods for Sega and several Japanese department stores, for the equivalent of about three cents an hour.

“It is my firm opinion that not only is this practice morally reprehensible, but it is also in direct contravention of international agreements on to which Japan and most other industrialized and civilized nations have signed,” Ackerman said in a statement made June 10, 1994.

“Forced labor such as this violates the general conference of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 29, which was ratified by Japan on Nov. 21, 1932.”

The convention defines forced or compulsory labor as “any work or service exacted from any person as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law, provided that the said work or service is carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority and that the said person is not hired or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations.”

In some countries, including the United States, private companies use prison labor, but only with prisoner consent and for minimum wages.

Ackerman said a Japanese official told him the practice was not against Japanese or international law, but companies were instructed not to send any of the products to the United States because of the prohibition concerning prison labor.

“It’s too bad the Democrats lost control of Congress the next year and Ackerman lost the chairmanship of the committee,” Griffith said. “Nothing ever happened as a result of the hearing.”

In a letter to Griffith last year, Harp said he was forced to make and assemble cellular phone parts, car emblems and car panels. Pay ranged from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen ($9.43 to $28.30) per month. He wrote to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo complaining of being forced to work for private Japanese companies and was told in a two-paragraph response that, “SOFA status prisoners are the responsibility of the U.S. military in Japan, regardless of where the prisoner is serving his sentence. We have forwarded your letter to the Marine Corps Base Camp Fuji, for further action.”

Harp said no action was taken.

Embassy officials directed Stripes inquiries to U.S. Forces Japan for information concerning the issue. A July 8 response stated, “prisoners receive a monthly visit from their respective service component’s prisoner liaison officer.”

“During this visit, the status of the prisoner’s health and welfare along with any complaints are noted,” the USFJ response stated. “If any legal matters arise, they are addressed by the Judge Advocate’s office.”

“Yeah, they’d come by,” Harp said. “They’d walk through and talk to us and tell us we were doing a good job and then they’d go. They saw what we were doing.”

Amnesty International released a May report highlighting reports of torture and ill treatment of people while in Japanese custody.

However, Japanese members of the organization say the prison labor issue is not that serious.

Teranaka, the executive director, said the prison labor practices are under review by the Ministry of Justice.

— Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?...&article=23318


Ellie

[Toby M]

Forced to assemble cellphones...Hmmmm, just punishment for a RAPE!!! Apparently hanging was out of the question so they did the next best thing! I'm sorry, was I being sarcastic? Darn, I thought RAPE was a serious crime...

[MillRatUSMC]

The crime of RAPE of a 12 year old and they're crying about assembling a few cell phones.
They should have lock them up and thrown away the key.
As a grandfather of two young girls, animals like this get to me big time.
Wonder of these animals have to register as child molesters here in the USA?
I wonder if they ever think of the young life they ruined.
No remorse, just complaining about assembling a few cell phones.
Next they will seek to be reimbursed for assembling to cell phones.
They should have hung the bastards...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

[ivalis]

the booger should thank his lucky stars he isn't in a 60s era brig.

[Arlene Horton]

A 60's era or even a 50's era brig would look like the punishment they were subjected to was a "cakewalk". Most of the brig guards I knew (from the "slop chute) would "entertain" those of us who were sitting with them with tales from the brig. These were not uncaring people, they were Marines who felt that these prisoners they were supervising deserved everything that was happening to them. It wasn't a case of unnecessary punishment but just a feeling that if these brig rats were confined, there was a good reason for it. Raping a 12 year old girl showed what losers they were. Probably were either too ugly or too demanding to get a legitimate date with a mature woman. They deserved everything they got, and then some! Semper Fi

[Eaglestrikes]

every where, in my pockets, under my desk, out in the yard and even on the roof. Can't find one little bit of sympathy for them. Nope not one. I hope that Lawyer gets hit by an Ambulance going in reverse while he's chasing it.
Rape! 12 Year old? Kidnapping! Three of them.
What??? Where they scared of her? Had to overwhelm her? A-Holes. T-S. Let em rot.

[hrscowboy]

buttom line he done the crime so he does the crime. too bad bubba wasnt there with him maybe he would have learned what rape is really like..

[GunnyL]

As far as I can tell, U.S. prison's aught to take a close look at the Japanese system. Maybe they could learn a few things. In Japan, when you are convicted you are expected to show remorse for your crime or you are considered beligerent and they make life very hard. You do the crime in Japan and you will do the time.
I remember this case specifically and as far as I'm concerned they should have castrated all three of them, put them in a chill box and thrown away the key.
As you can tell from this article, these guys don't see themselves as criminals, they see themselves as victims. Just goes to show you that there's no such thing as rehabilitation for hard corps criminals.

[hrscowboy]

hear hear i agree gunny l

[sgt.lane]

Stupid a$$ should not be raping kids and he should not be whining about squat!!!!!!!!!!

[HardJedi]

GOOD GODALMIGHTY! what ? was the fool to poor to afford a HOOKER? not like there isn't a "bath house" or "massage parlor" every few frickin miles!

Never could understand the crime of rape. just makes me sick. castrating and hanging is too GOOD for SOB'S like that.

What they OUGHTA do is lock them in sensory deprivation chambers 23 hours and 30 minutes a day, and just kick the crap out of em and let rabid horny Brama Bulls have their way with em the other 30 minutes a day.

good lord, wish I hadn't even READ this post now, cause I am P!SSED!

[DSchmitke]

This moron should just keep his mouth shut. They should have castrated him for the crime of rape.

[Amtracs]

These azzzwipes should have been made to carry 2 full honey buckets around their cells 12 hours a day. They are no better than the contents of the buckets.
Just my 2 cents.

[HardJedi]

forgive my ignorance, but what is a honey bucket?

[Amtracs]

In Japan they use human waste to fertilzer the crops. With a long pole and 2 buckets hanging on each end is how they carried them