A friend of Stippy.com wrote to the website with a report of his terrible experience being locked up in a Japanese prison. He was kept for more than three weeks with no charges, no contact with anybody apart from his non-English speaking lawyer... all for having one too many drinks on his Birthday Bash and having some problems with a taxi driver on his way home.

The 3-part article (of which 2 are availalble at time of writing this) goes on to explain his ordeal, starting with why it happened and then details of his experiences in the Japanese prison. A real eye-opener, and something that might keep me a bit more sensible the next time I head out on the town!

In Japan, suspects for any type of crime, can be held in a type of prison called a 留置場（りゅうちじょう, Ryuuchijyou）, under the “daiyo kangoku” (代用監獄) system of imprisonment without trial (the official political correct term for　”daiyo kangoku” by the way is “daiyo keiji shisetsu”（代用刑事施設）.

Prisoners can be held for interrogation for 23 days without charge, without being offered bail, and without proper legal representation.

Both Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Committee have condemned the practice, which persuades many prisoners to confess to whatever they are accused of in the gruelling interrogation process.

Read the full article at Stippy.com: Part 1 - Part 2