A sobering peak into the Thai prison situation

[Spitfire]

Shackling, insane over-crowding, no medical care, 200 hundred females stuck together in a single area, each prisoner gets a square meter and that's that until it's taken if you want the toilet.

I'm no fluffy tweed jacket type or some 'perps should be serving their time in a hotel with UBC' advocate etc (quite the opposite actually) like what happens in the west but this is pretty severe, more like 18th century style.

A rare bit of info on the darker side of how merciless the locals operate with their own.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13598193

[richard]

I've frequently visited a Khon Kaen prison where the wifes nephew is held for manslaughter. Bright lad but his crime was a result of passion and Laos Khao

Conditions on the visitor front are fine and of course family are there to give food, medication, ciggies and money which on the face of it is fairly handled. BUT, behind the scenes it is gruesome. Far too many to a cell, sleep huddled up next to your fellow inmates and the toilet is a hole in the middle of the cell

Gruesome it is. to us farangs where our home prisons are like 3 star hotels but to a Thai peasant it is tolerable. Having lived in an extremely poor rural area of Isaan I've seen the living conditions some of them have endured all their lives

I experienced the same when living in Zimbabwe

[matthewnoel]

you know when youre thai chick always locks the door when she goes to bathroom,yes,because she uses the hole on the floor.yes or no,shall we start a new thread?

[richard]

Up to you if you think it relative to the thread

[kendo]

Two people I know 15 years apart, but one I went to school, Applemore Comprhensive,the other 10 years older than me but I knew him anyway in the community
Alan kerinan and Johnathan Wheller both doing the big tiger.
Kendo

[PeteC]

There's mention on another thread about a former HH bar owner in the system. Was that a righteous conviction or something trumped up? Pete

[margaretcarnes]

There's mention on another thread about a former HH bar owner in the system. Was that a righteous conviction or something trumped up? Pete

No Pete - IMO that was a rightious conviction, despite what anyone else may say on the matter.
And one time I visited Bang Kwang along with a Mod and A N Other. As Richard rightly says the gifts, food etc we took were on the face of it fairly dealt with, and what we took in there emerged intact on the inside.
Yes - at formal visiting times there is clearly a 'front' put on for the visitors. But there were still prisoners in shackles clearly visible being walked along - including farang.
I have no complaints whatsoever about the way in which we - as visitors - were dealt with. It was strict. I was patted down 5 times on the way in to Bang Kwang by female guards, which is a damn sight more security than I have experienced when visiting clients in a UK prison. But is that a bad thing? I think not.
At the end of the day Thai prisons can't be compared at all to those in the West but - and this is a big 'but' - prisoners in Thailand are only confined to those abomnablel cells for about 8 hours a day. They are outside from dawn until dusk give or take which again is a damn sight more than any UK prisoner could expect. There is an amount of internet access allowed now. There is clearly very little censorship of mail. There are facilities for taking copies of letters etc and any intelligent farang prisoner can easily use the system to obtain whatever they need.
I would recommend a book to any dis-believer here. Sandra Gregorys' book 'Forget You Have a Daughter' is an eye opener on life on the Thai 'inside'.

[Pleng]

prisoners in Thailand are only confined to those abomnablel cells for about 8 hours a day. They are outside from dawn until dusk give or take which again is a damn sight more than any UK prisoner could expect.

In the baking heat?

Is there any shade?

[Arcadian]

[I would recommend a book to any dis-believer here. Sandra Gregorys' book 'Forget You Have a Daughter' is an eye opener on life on the Thai 'inside'.

I read that book Mags, she said at the end that she was transferred to Holloway prison to finish her sentence and that conditions there were worse than in Thailand.
I suppose there is an obvious answer on how to avoid going into the system.

[STEVE G]

I suppose there is an obvious answer on how to avoid going into the system.

Exactly! I've all sympathy for anyone who is wrongly convicted but I don't imagine that they are very large number in any country.
I've always found that the easiest way of avoiding prisons is working for a living and the only real complaint I have with the Thai system is that too many of the people who should be in it, aren't.

[kendo]

Here's a good link

http://www.phaseloop.com/foreignprisone ... kwang.html

I have been told that one of the two prisoners i know was murdered in there in January.

Kendo.

[kendo]

Well well, the one lad that i had been told was murdered is today splashed all over the front page of the Southampton Daily Echo here's a link for those interested
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9973868 ... ok_prison/

Realeased on a pardon after 18 years, i know his friend Nick quite well will be interesting story over a few pints.

kendo.

[margaretcarnes]

Well well, the one lad that i had been told was murdered is today splashed all over the front page of the Southampton Daily Echo here's a link for those interested
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9973868 ... ok_prison/

Realeased on a pardon after 18 years, i know his friend Nick quite well will be interesting story over a few pints.

kendo.

i seem to remember Gary talking about a Jonathan in his regular missives from BangKwang. Yes it's tough - but many get through it, as Jonathan and Gary both have now.
There is an admission of guilt here and an acceptance, to an extent, of the punishment. But the Thai way is certainly different to the UK way and yes, in Thailand murderers can get lesser sentences than drug smugglers. To me that partly reflects the Thai attitude to death.
It also reinforces my belief that in the UK drug dealing is still dealt with far too leniently.
Jonathan probably has a tougher 'sentence' to face now back home in many ways. Not least as he says adjusting to a very different way of life. The time he has left is unlikely to be productive. The inevitable book deal would only be a drip in an already saturated market. He will be a minor celeb in his local for a while - that time might already have passed - leaving the dole qeue until a minimum pension.
That's the reality for farang drug smuggler. Unfortunately it won't stop them.

[almirante82]

Although nothing to do with the Thai prison system, a book I would recommend is 'marching powder' by rusty young. It's the story of a Brit who gets locked up in a Bolivian prison where you actually have to purchase you own cell, and he ended up running a tour guide service for tourists in the prison.

[Ginjaninja]

Although nothing to do with the Thai prison system, a book I would recommend is 'marching powder' by rusty young. It's the story of a Brit who gets locked up in a Bolivian prison where you actually have to purchase you own cell, and he ended up running a tour guide service for tourists in the prison.

I've got the paperback if someone wants to borrow. Haven't got round to reading it yet so will need it back.
GN.