April is the month of the traditional Thai new year celebrations known as “Songkran” and is the most important national holiday in the Thai Calendar.

Also known as the “Water Festival” it is traditionally a time of great merriment for the people, rather like Christmas in the west. However, for those of us in prison it is a dreaded time of year because it spells days of inactivity, boredom and isolation. National holidays for a prisoner means the complete lack of the usual events that help break the long days up into manageable portions, such as mail, visits, parcel deliveries, trips to court, new arrivals, or anything else remotely entertaining or cheering

.

Even the prison hospital is closed and so becoming ill over the holidays is inadvisable. The non delivery of mail, either outbound or incoming causes massive backlogs and the consequences are still to be felt days or even weeks after the holidays. The same goes for anything else you happen to be waiting on such as important documents or e-mails because ‘Hung-over’ and lazy officers are reluctant to lift a finger so soon following their post-holiday return to duties spelling “New Year Blues” all round