21st CENTURY PUNISHMENTS

in Rayong Provincial prison on Thailand’s eastern border with Cambodia they still use the traditional ‘Ball and Chain’ restraints on prisoners who infringe prison rules. the heavy concrete ball is attached to an ankle shackle by a long chain. In order to get around a prisoner shackled to the ball and chain must first pick up the ball and using the chain, sling it over his shoulder, holding it tight to allow enough slack in the chain for him to take a stride.

Other prisons have different methods of punishments. In some, prisoners who have been caught fighting each other are forced to fight again in front of the entire prison population until they drop. If they tire from battering each other to early they will be forced to continue by blueshirts wielding batons. They either fight until they are bruised and bleeding or take a hammering by blueshirts. Elsewhere the problem of inmates fighting is dealt with by chaining the two, three, four or more offenders together by the ankles for several days or weeks until it is deemed they have learnt their lesson. The ‘Chain’ of prisoners must now do everything together. If one needs to go somewhere they all have to follow and that includes squatting for a shit! They must eat and shower together and sleep side by side too. If one of them still insists on fighting then the others are left with no choice but to shut him up. A team effort.

Other punishments vary from prison to prison. I have seen giant wrought iron ‘Chicken’ cages pegged out in the fierce sun where a prisoner under punishment must remain all day without food or water, left to cook in the oven like heat and contemplate his offense.

On another occasion I saw a Thai prisoner beaten brutally across the back by an officer with a 2 inch thick bamboo cane. After the beating he was forced to roll, shirtless, over and over across two lengths of prison yard. The concrete and grit superheated by the sun only added to his agony as did the handful of blueshirts bawling, screaming, kicking and laying into the guy with batons whenever he stopped rolling.

During the 1990’s in Bombut remand prison, a prisoner was beaten to death by guards after they caught him sniffing glue that he had purloined from the furniture making ‘Sweatshop’ which is located in building 8. In a state of collapse after the beating he was taken to the prison hospital but never recovered and died later that day. The beating was quickly covered up and the prisons official line was that this man had suffered some kind of accident in the furniture shop. The body was hastily cremated and the remains returned to the grieving family. How do we know all this? The prisoner’s brother was also beaten that day, but survived. Albeit with some permanent damage that impairs his vision and speech he is still serving alongside us today.

Some punishments are less physical but designed to demean or belittle the offender. Being forced to exercise or masturbate naked in front of hundreds of fellow inmates for some perceived violation at the shower trough; having empty tin cans strung around one ankle which must be then dragged noisily, clattering and banging the prisoner all day while he shouts over and over in Thai at the top of his voice. One can only surmise by the giggling and laughter of the other prisoners and guards that his shouting is something akin to the English exclamation “I am a Wanker!”

Or how about being forced to work up to your waist in human excrement. This detestable job is commonly reserved for offenders. Every few months the cess pits  beneath this building become full and start backing up the crude system. The level must be brought down and the only way to do this is by removing the manholes, have people lower themselves down into the filth and start shoveling. Once the covers are off the stench is overpowering and the surface of the waste appears to move but is actually caused by the thousands of Cockroaches feeding on it and scattering from the bright sunlight.

Not a popular job but someone has to do it so usually recent rule breakers or offenders are singled out for the sickening task. They must spend several very unpleasant days up to their tackle in shit. Shoveling it out into barrows from where it will be wheeled to another part of the building and buried. This is a nasty few days for all as the unavoidable stench of shit permeates every corner of the building. The barrows are wheeled, slopping and dripping their load along the buildings main thoroughfares past prisoners preparing or eating food, the shit is trodden everywhere by the prisoner traffic. There is no getting away from it.

Maybe the expression ‘Getting in the shit’ originated in Bangkwang?