Govt to Expand Home-Visit Program for Former Inmates Nationwide, Aiming to Curb Recidivism Rate

By Masanori Yamashita / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

13:14 JST, August 18, 2025

The Justice Ministry is proceeding with a plan to implement a home visit prisoner support program nationwide, where specialists will meet with former prison or juvenile detention center inmates, or those given suspended indictments or sentences, to monitor their lives after leaving designated rehabilitation facilities. Currently, only a limited number of facilities offer the program.

Rehabilitation facilities accept individuals with no relatives to turn to, or otherwise have nowhere else to go upon release or receiving suspended indictments or sentences. The facilities provide accommodation, meals, employment support and lifestyle guidance. There are 102 such facilities nationwide, run by private organizations tasked with operation by the government. In 2023, the facilities welcomed 6,457 individuals.

The recidivism rate among program recipients was one-third that of non-recipients, demonstrating its significant effectiveness.

However, the program still faces challenges, such as cases where rehabilitation facility employees continued to visit even after the official support period ended, out of a sense of responsibility.

Person to consult

Launched by the ministry in October 2021, the program has specialized staff from rehabilitation facilities visit the homes of former residents once or twice a month after release. They provide guidance on everyday aspects of life, such as trash disposal, accompanying former residents to medical appointments, and assisting with administrative procedures like applying for welfare benefits.

The program is offered by 19 designated facilities, aimed at those released from prisons or juvenile detention centers within the past two years.

“I can consult with them about anything, and I am able to live without anxiety. I feel I must not betray the people who are supporting me, and that stops me from committing a crime again,” a woman in her 80s said in May. She had been imprisoned four times for shoplifting.

Her husband died about 20 years ago, and she has no relatives to rely on. She said she repeatedly committed crimes to alleviate her loneliness.

After being released in 2022, she stayed at a rehabilitation facility in the Kanto region for about five months, and has since received home-visit support. She said the staff member who visits at the nursing home she stays at about once a month is “someone she can rely on.”

In addition to accompanying her to a medical institution, the staff member listens to her daily concerns, which she said has helped her feel “more mentally at ease.”

“For people burdened by the guilt of having committed a crime, making friends on their own or participating in community gatherings is extremely difficult. By treating them like family, we aim to help keep them connected to society,” a director of the facility said.

The program was launched in part as stays at rehabilitation facilities are limited to six months in principle. Upon leaving, they are required to live independently, but in many cases, becoming isolated and losing their support system led to returning to crime.

The support program has had moderate success. Of the 113 individuals surveyed by the ministry who had received the support from October 2021 to March 2022, their recidivism rate as of the end of September 2022 was 4.4% — 9.8 percentage points lower than the 14.2% recorded among non-recipients. In fiscal 2023, the program had 445 recipients.

Challenges

Challenges remain, however, regarding the facilities’ availability and the length of the support period.

The 19 facilities participating in the program are located in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and 14 other prefectures, and reportedly home-visit support has been suspended in some cases after recipients moved, due to a lack of similar facilities in their new areas. The Justice Ministry plans to gradually increase the number of designated facilities nationwide.

Some individuals committed crimes again after the two-year period, having lost the facilities’ support system. Some specialist staff members have continued to provide support on their own initiative, out of a sense of responsibility.

According to Fukuyama University criminal policy professor Manabu Nakajima, it is vital to create an environment that prevents recidivism. In particular, in light of focus shifting from punishment to rehabilitation with the introduction of confinement imprisonment in June, unifying two types of punishment: imprisonment with labor and imprisonment without labor.