Bangkok Holiday Camps”
Saturday July 30th 2005 Bangkok Post www.bangkokpost.com
The social scientists, law and order activists and media representatives who met on Wednesday to urge the government not to make our prisons too cozy and comfortable for fear they might lose their ability to deter crime, should head the words of former “Corrections Department Chief Thawee Chusap”. He knows the penal system well and is emphatic that no one would ever want to be put behind bars if they had a choice, no matter how much progress is made in prison reform.
Prisons deprive inmates of their freedom, cost them their jobs and, in many cases, their families and make them social outcasts. That is the worst punishment and the point the social scientists are forgetting, they also degrade the quality of life to mere subsistence level. That loss of freedom and the lifelong stigma is why jails can never be made luxurious enough to encourage repeat offenders. Not that this is ever likely to happen.
We currently have over 160.000 people incarcerated in jails built to house 90.000. This overcrowding causes prisoners to fall sick, become mentally ill and occasionally attempt suicide because of the often appalling conditions. Much has been made out about the prevalence of TB and Aids and most prisons do not have resident doctors like Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi.
In recent years, the Correction Department has had a series of reform-minded directors-general and, under funded and under resourced as they have been, a more compassionate and enlightened approach has been adopted. This has placed greater emphasis on the rehabilitation of the inmates and led to a more human attitude. For instance, in 2002 many prisoners at Bang Kwang maximum security facility had to try and sleep standing up or pressing against each other.
Now the numbers of prisoners has been reduced from 36 to 24 to a cell and the inmates get a meter-wide strip to lie down in, instead of being sandwiched against each other.
Most offenders are in jail for drugs. Fortunately, the Drug Addicts Rehabilitation Act now treats minor drug offenders as addicts in sentencing options. Courts, though, can not avoid handing out tough custodial sentences for trafficking and other crimes and it remains the job of the Correction Department to find somewhere to put those sentenced. What is encouraging is how innovative they are being.
Last year we saw the introduction of a pilot program under which women convicted of minor crimes were allowed out to work on weekdays, returning to jail at weekends. Prisoners with less than one-third of their terms remaining were eligible. Apart from reducing overcrowding and the resulting tension, this weekend-only detention program helped keep families together. The inmates who suffer the most both during and after incarceration are those who have committed minor offences and for whom a more suitable punishment would have been a non-custodial one.
The Corrections Department is also encouraging prisoners to value themselves more, with provisions being made to allow special soccer matches, wedding ceremonies between inmates and their partners, the practice of meditation, traditional massage services, and the opportunity for conjugal visits and prison choirs.
Elderly prisoners have an opportunity for early release and, to boost morale, more meetings are being allowed between women prisoners and their children and husbands.
In selected prisons, inmates can undertake studies via satellite, make handicrafts for sale or be trained in farming techniques at military camps. Rehabilitation programs have been introduced for those who have abused family members and to allow male and female inmates to work and spend supervised time together to relieve stress and aggression. Sports and access to music also make-up part of the rehabilitation schemes designed to prepare prisoners for a successful return to society. But, once out, there is little recidivism. Prisons are still terrifying places. Those who are afraid they might turn into holiday camps should arrange a visit. They will not want to stay long.
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Response from prisoners in Bang Kwang to:
“Prisons are no
True!, we no longer sleep standing up, we never did! We stood and waited our turn to lay down and sleep, while others woke up and took their turn standing.
The only prisoners with a meter-wide floor space are the guards Trustee Blue Shirts attack dogs, snitches and spies that serve as slaves to the guards, attending to their every need.
One of their rewards for this is sleeping in the corridor where there is ample floor space. (As the cells of “normal” prisoners are rammed full)
The meter wide floor space is a gross Exaggeration of what is actually (52 cm exactly). Both my right and left shoulders touch the shoulders of the 2 men sleeping either side of me!
In Bombut Narcotics Remand Prison I was one of 67 prisoners in my cell, not the 24 quoted!
A battery Farm Chicken! Seriously! Had more body space!
To say it is encouraging at how innovative the Department of Corrections is being-over! Optimistic to say the least!
Have a look at the sketch of “The Double Decker Cell” or “Monkey Cage” (Building 3 Bombut Remand Prison)
Where their innovativeness cut a standard cell in half horizontally leaving prisoners on both the ground and upper floor unable to even stand up straight.
The Editorial states that only 160.000 prisoners are incarcerated in prisons to house 90.000.
The true much higher figure is 350.000 prisoners! Probably just something wrong with their calculator!
About 3 years ago the Bangkok Post also quoted the Prime Minister of Thailand as saying “20% of incarcerated prisoners are innocent.
So on his figures
The more compassionate and enlightened approach that has been adopted and led to a more humane attitude!
He seems to have overlooked the 800 plus prisoners here on Death Row. (All of which are still held permanently in heavy shackles) Some of which have been living 10 – 15 years in these shackles.
Studies via Satellite! What drivel!
Unless you count the practice of meditation where we telepathically communicate via “Satellite of Course” to aliens in some far off galaxy! They are very good teachers you know!
True!, prisoners make handicrafts and all sort of things! But not in the name of Rehabilitation programs.
They are forced to work or pay a guard not to work, in the appalling sweat shops, given impossible quotas to fill for a pittance of a monthly wage. No thought or care is given in the sweat shops for the prisoners Health and Safety. Only greed by the guards to line their pockets with money and to hell with the prisoners.
“Rehabilitation schemes designed to prepare prisoners for a successful return to society. But, once out, there is little recidivism”.
I’ve never heard such blatant lies in all my life!
Low recividist rates result here in Bang Kwang Prison because YOU HAVE TO GET OUT ALIVE TO BE RECIVIDIST!
United Nations estimates life expectancy for Foreign Prisoners here at just 10 years.
Medical neglect in appalling living conditions, with sentences here of 30 years being the minimum to get in this prison.
Sure low recidivism rates, very few are alive after 20 or 30 years here!
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