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Introduction

The significance of founding a prison through public-private cooperation

Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Program Center makes practical use of the PFI model: it is a prison which entrusts facility design, construction as well as part of the administration to private business. By making use of a designated structural reform district, the government has widely entrusted operations to the private sector, including exercising governmental authority. It has also entrusted management of the prisoners’ medical clinic to Shimane Prefecture.

Previously, prisons were far removed from society, and the public did not know the reality of these facilities. However, this prison was founded through public-private cooperation in response to a number of factors: in order to solve the problems of increases in crime and of prison overcrowding; due to the urgent need to provide more facilities amidst a restriction on the number of government officials; as part of the opening of the private sector to government markets; due to the major trend of regulatory reform which holds that prison operations should be entrusted to the private sector if that is possible; and due to the effect of prison administration reform, which aims to create prisons that the public can understand and support. The involvement of private business in the running of the prison is thought be to extremely significant.

* Private Finance Initiative, which is a new method of utilizing private sector capital, management ability and technical ability to conduct the design, operation and maintenance and administration of public facilities. It is expected that this will lead to the provision of moderately priced as well as superior public services, innovation of public administration, and economic stimulus through the creation of business opportunities for the private sector.

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