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 It was some 40 years ago when I started to visit correctional institutions
as a prison chaplain and a volunteer interviewer. I have often spent my
time praying and encouraging young people to build firmly their own future,
by finding themselves and by not disturbing people any more once they come
out of prison. In all movie theaters there are emergency exits on both sides of the hall.
Juvenile delinquents can be looked on in that way. They ran into crimes
forced by the circumstances. They stopped at the red lights and went into
a reformatory. There they had time to reflect on their lives to make solid
plans for the future. Some of them are able to proceed naturally in society
once they come out, but there are others who can hardly live by themselves,
and sometimes we are bearing the burden of supporting them.
There is nothing in this world for which there is no reason. Why is it
that some young persons remain as delinquents? If the young can not understand
the reason, they continue the same mistakes. Children grow looking at adults
from the back. I have always said that parents, not the children, are the
ones who should be brought to Juvenile Classification Offices. Confined
there for 4 weeks they could reflect on their lives and how to change them.
If parents dialogue with each other children will not go astray. The fact
that there is not enough dialogue in Japanese homes is the source of many
problems. |
When I visit correction institutions I leave at 7:30 in the morning and
come home at 5 in the afternoon. It is the rush hour, a time to study people.
In the trains I often observe that 6 persons are seated in places for 7
persons, without caring for the ones standing. People are comfortably unconcerned,
maybe reading a book or half asleep. Such is the image grown ups show to
children. As soon as the door of the train opens, people run to a vacant
seat. Senior citizens have to stand because people do not offer them a
seat. Children see adults as persons thinking only of themselves and tend
to imitate them. I have little knowledge of other countries, but I think
that if Japan continues to go as is now, it will become frightful. There
will be no place for weak people. Adults must show small children how to
respect the rights of others. People should not do to others anything they
themselves dislike. Words and action should meet and thus parents should
make their children remember the joy of loving others, something they do
not do. The only thing children realize is that they are loved. Since childhood
children receive everything and they are not accustomed to make sacrifices.
Children observe how parents work from early morning to evening to earn
money and thus, the only important thing for them in this world is money.
Since there is nothing interesting at home, they play with their friends
outside. They look for something exciting and they squeeze cigarettes on
each other arms, betting to see who is going to endure it more. As the
mass media reports every day, teenagers, organized in groups, bully the
weaker ones and go around stealing money. All this is the result of seeds
sown by the adults. In old times, crimes were often the result of poverty,
but nowadays affluent society provokes delinquency. |
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Money makes everything possible. Parents do not want their little children
cry and often they suffer and cry once their children grew up. A tree takes
shape when it is still young, but nothing can be done after it grows. It
is very important that during childhood people are trained to control themselves.
If in family life parents help each other, children will learn to do it
naturally, afterwards. In my interviews with children I find that they
never criticize grown-ups. They often cry. They want to leave as soon as
possible correction and to be accepted by their own families. They do not
want to live as they did up to now, once they form their own families.
Whenever I ask them what happiness means to them, their answer is: "to
sit the four members of the family together and enjoy a simple meal at
home." Money is sometimes the cause of unhappiness and breaks up family
life. When family links are strengthened juvenile delinquency falls. It
is important that families hold together in unity. When children are made
to experience joy in helping others, they become persons able to love.
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At the beginning of my interviews I introduce myself and show them a simple
graph I wrote on a paper.
The 1st graph shows two different approaches to social life. Then I ask
them, "Before you entered here what kind of life did you have? An
inward looking life-style or an outward looking one?" Most of them
are able to give a correct answer. The inward looking persons are attracted
by pleasures and have lived flashy lives. They usually end in a mental
hospital, a prison and in death. Those with outward looks walk building
their future. |
Then, I show them a 2nd graph with the shape of an egg. An egg is a symbol
of life. "What does a chick do to leave the egg?" I ask them.
Their answer is that it must break the shell. Then, I invite them to reflect
on their present life; in the reformatory they encounter themselves, as
being spiritually sick in their hearts. They will be reborn again.I usually tell them that they are not in a reformatory, but in a technical
school. It is not a jail but a Science Faculty of a university. They should
endeavor till they accomplish the goals they are looking for. I call the
sickness of the heart the "worm" of the heart. If one realizes
that s/he carries a worm in the heart s/he can disregard it. My witty remarks
make them enjoy the interviews. |
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Serious crimes are on the increase and as a result there is much public
discussion on the need of revising the Juvenile Act. The real issue is
not the teenagers but the families and the schools, but since it is difficult
to deal with education in the families and schools, adults look for ways
to abuse young people instead of defending them. The most important way
to prevent juvenile delinquency is to change the environment that facilitates
crime, not to punish heavily the weak youngsters. Take the issue of drugs,
for instance. If we really want to keep the youth off drugs, warm family
relationships are necessary, as well as to punish severely drug traffickers
doing profit business. And if we want to stop girl prostitution we should
first start from the schools and families teaching moral sexuality, punishing
heavily those men who buy girls. Molesters of women are, of course, doing
wrong but girls wearing mini-mini skirts are also blamable. If one places
a container with gasoline in front of an arsonist he will put fire to it. |
Things to be remembered in an interview:
I end here. Let the people reflect and do their best, leaving the rest
to Providence. |
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