Rampant Unprotected Sex, Drug Abuse At Thai Jails

[george]

'Rampant unprotected sex, drug abuse at Thai jails'

Experts at an international conference in Bali have voiced concern about the spread of HIV/Aids in Thai prisons and say many inmates admit to having unprotected sex or sharing needles with other addicts.

Dr Sutayut Osornprasop, a human development specialist at the World Bank's office in Thailand, said sex and drug abuse is rampant in prisons despite strict bans imposed by relevant authorities.

"Top officials at the Justice Ministry won't admit that such things happen, but in reality they do," Sutayut said.

He said he received the information while conducting a survey alongside diseasecontrol officials over the past month or two.

"Some inmates revealed that they offered sexual favours in exchange for cigarettes or chocolate," Sutayut said.

He was speaking at the ninth International Congress on Aids in Asia and the Pacific, which ended yesterday.

He said campaigns against Aids should extend to prisons.

"Inmates should be educated about Aids and how to guard themselves against the disease. They should have access to condoms and lubricant. Blood tests should also be provided to those who want to see if they have contracted the disease," he said.

Sutayut said fresh needles should be available for older inmates with a drug habit.

"Younger inmates usually take methamphetamines, so they don't need a needle, but the older inmates have different habits," he said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres - the acclaimed medical group also known as 'Doctors Without Borders' - started a pilot project in three jails in and around Bangkok to provide cheap antiretroviral drugs to prisoners with HIV or Aids, and train and educate health workers, guards and prisoners about the disease.

The project was undertaken at Bang Kwang, Minburi and Pathum Thani prisons from 2003 but ended late last year.

Minburi jail director Kongkrit Pornkongtwatch said at the time he was sad the MSF project had ended and feared HIV infections would continue at the jail. "It has made a lot of improvements, as we can't even afford a fulltime doctor here. If prisoners get infected, there is no way to protect other inmates.

"Staff in other jails need to be trained too. It's important that prisoners be released with training and counselling [about the disease]. This is a good model for other prisons, but that is a policy decision for the Department of Corrections."

But it is not known if the department considered the curriculum developed by MSF on treatment for prisoners with HIV with a view to replicating the project at other jails.

Former senator Jon Ungpakorn said inmates with good behaviour should be allowed conjugal visits, because this would reduce the risk of Aids.

"Since it's normal for humans to have sex, it would be better to let inmates have sex with their spouses," Jon advised.

He said protection should be give to sex workers, migrant workers, homosexuals, drug addicts, plus homeless and stateless people.

"These people have been marginalised and thus have limited defence against Aids. If we help them, there will be fewer Aids cases in society overall," Jon said.

-- The Nation 2009-08-14

[Scott]

A know of a person who was put in jail for some petty criminal activity. He was just being detained, but he used to call another friend about 3-4 times a week. We asked him how he got access to a phone. Seems that if you gave one of the officers a blow job, you got to make a phone call.

I am sure this isn't unique to Thailand.

[imjustagirl]

sad sad sad. Just more proof that chucking people in jails for petty crimes is not the answer. If they weren't taking drugs before prison they will be after and more likely to commit more dangerous crimes. HIV death sentance - why bother trying to become part of society when you get out.... sell your self for chocolate in prison... abandon hope all ye who enter here! ..Seems obvious.... I hate to think of the poor b*strds that get chucked in for something small or worse, something they didn't do

[dale8]

Hello, it is sad for the people that will only have to spend a relative short time in prison as it could work into a death sentence due to the lack of interest, money, and corruption. This is another way to scare people into making better choices in their life so they do not risk going to prison. I hope some independant organizations can help with the conditions in the prisons, but it is up to the Thai government to let them help as maybe they want the prisoners to suffer more.

[CHAIYENYEN]

the notoriety of thai prisons as a source for the spread of aids - like any prison worlwwide - is well known and with the release of each prisoner, the multiplier efffect is mind bogling.

most of these people end up being promiscuous outside prison. to rely on others to help them is like asking others to look after them. such efforts are futile. try continuous education directly to everyone to take care of themselves. the luxury of having others to teach these prisoners how to take of themselves is hard to come by these days with the global crisis affecting thailand.

notice the numbers of funerals each week in the regions beyond bangkok? Most of the dead are very young. the crisis is serious. more posters and repetitive tv documentaries may help. the target audience should be the young and young adults.

this note here is just an expression of hope that a samaritan will come along to save the next generation of thais. beyond this, god knows.

[sunreader]

A know of a person who was put in jail for some petty criminal activity. He was just being detained, but he used to call another friend about 3-4 times a week. We asked him how he got access to a phone. Seems that if you gave one of the officers a blow job, you got to make a phone call.

I am sure this isn't unique to Thailand.

3-4 times a week?....Wow...he must have really really wanted to speak to his 'friend'.

[saintofsilence]

A know of a person who was put in jail for some petty criminal activity. He was just being detained, but he used to call another friend about 3-4 times a week. We asked him how he got access to a phone. Seems that if you gave one of the officers a blow job, you got to make a phone call.

I am sure this isn't unique to Thailand.

3-4 times a week?....Wow...he must have really really wanted to speak to his 'friend'.

They were possibly std calls

[mrtoad]

A know of a person who was put in jail for some petty criminal activity. He was just being detained, but he used to call another friend about 3-4 times a week. We asked him how he got access to a phone. Seems that if you gave one of the officers a blow job, you got to make a phone call.

I am sure this isn't unique to Thailand.

3-4 times a week?....Wow...he must have really really wanted to speak to his 'friend'.

They were possibly std calls

Whole new meaning to "getting on the blower".

[hughben]

notice the numbers of funerals each week in the regions beyond bangkok? Most of the dead are very young. the crisis is serious. more posters and repetitive tv documentaries may help. the target audience should be the young and young adults.

How do you know they are dying of AIDS related diseases?

If they are 'very young' wouldn't they have been born with the disease?

[saintofsilence]

If the inmates wanted to use the Internet the Gaurds have the back door option

[Chunkton]

A know of a person who was put in jail for some petty criminal activity. He was just being detained, but he used to call another friend about 3-4 times a week. We asked him how he got access to a phone. Seems that if you gave one of the officers a blow job, you got to make a phone call.

I am sure this isn't unique to Thailand.

3-4 times a week?....Wow...he must have really really wanted to speak to his 'friend'.

It would have been 7 times a week but the guard was too exhausted.

[geriatrickid]

notice the numbers of funerals each week in the regions beyond bangkok? Most of the dead are very young. the crisis is serious. more posters and repetitive tv documentaries may help. the target audience should be the young and young adults.

How do you know they are dying of AIDS related diseases?

If they are 'very young' wouldn't they have been born with the disease?

They are young, because the majority of people living with HIV in Thailand are young adults. HIV is also predominant in the demographic that lives at or close to the poverty line. Due to limtied financial means they cannot access the medical care and treatment. Due to the other diseases associated with conditions arising from poverty (high density living in polluted areas - TB & respiratory disease, poor nutrition - heart disease, no medical care- chronic infections, etc.) As a result, they do not have the same life expectancies one sees in the west. HIV is one of the biggest threats to the Thai national labour pool because it impacts the male 21-41 age group the most. Simply put, in Asia, one doesn't have the same sizeable group of older people living with HIV as is seen in major western countries.

[Scott]

The young man who was earning his telephone priviledges was trying to get enough money together for bail. Thus the phone calls. Had there been more willing guards, I am sure he would have been on the phone more frequently. He was a rather colorful person who wasn't above doing whatever he needed to get what he wanted--and that was part of how he ended up in jail.

But that's a little off-topic. I thing Geriatrickid's post is much more relevant to the situation in Thailand. Mine is only of interest from the point of view that there is a significant amount of exploitation of people in jail than should be permitted and itis likely to be injurious to their health.

[nickynomates]

Very out of order and only hope you find it urgent to make a phone call when you find yourself in prison which with a dumb brain like you have is sure to happen.

[quote name=Chang Nawn Lap' post='

Considering the subject of the article HIV is not a problem for anyone excpet those who believe it actually exists. HIV is a lie from the american government and does not cause AIDS. AIDS is just a made up term for someones immune system destroyed by taking extremly toxic drugs that cause the problem in the first place. HIV will surface to be one of the biggest scams in modern day medical history of all time. do your research people. The truth will always eventually surface.

HIV is a harmless virus

http://www.fearoftheinvisible.com/silenced-voices-on-aids

am i saying have sex without rubbers?

YES

Edited August 15, 2009 by nickynomates

[MILT]

Considering the subject of the article HIV is not a problem for anyone excpet those who believe it actually exists. HIV is a lie from the american government and does not cause AIDS. AIDS is just a made up term for someones immune system destroyed by taking extremly toxic drugs that cause the problem in the first place. HIV will surface to be one of the biggest scams in modern day medical history of all time. do your research people. The truth will always eventually surface.

HIV is a harmless virus

http://www.fearoftheinvisible.com/silenced-voices-on-aids

am i saying have sex without rubbers?

YES

You are one of the first people I have seen to have the balls to opened this door and on TV to boot. I have done the research as well and understand why you posted this statement. But "rubbers" do help prevent a host of STD, and unwanted pregnancy's. HIV and AIDS will always be a controvercy. The pharmacutical and thier investers are making a huge sum of money on this false hood.

[HYENA]

I'm in the medical field and in the late 1980's we saw cases drop like flies without medications. Most of us didn't knwo what was going on until a specialist came in and gave us the instructions how to deal with this deadly disease. I've seen the lab tests, the cells, the virus itself and how it works. There's no way some layman with no medical background can make such a claim based on internet surfing....pure ignorance and this misinformation could be deadly to those on the margins.

There's a good reason India ignored US patent laws to produce their own HIV drugs and other countries followed suit. HIV drugs were a money maker for the corrupt drug companies but the virus IS deadly and kills millions.

Take a viral microbiology class, go to medical school then come back and post this rubbish.

[Johpa]

You are one of the first people I have seen to have the balls to opened this door and on TV to boot. I have done the research as well and understand why you posted this statement. But "rubbers" do help prevent a host of STD, and unwanted pregnancy's. HIV and AIDS will always be a controvercy. The pharmacutical and thier investers are making a huge sum of money on this false hood.

As one who lived in rural northern Thailand through the 1980s and into the 1990s, I personally witnessed an otherwise healthy population drop like flies from AIDS and, more to counter your point, who had been clinically diagnosed as HIV+. There was no poverty, no drugs from Big Pharma, just a steady drop in population in a Tambon with a maximum population of about 8,000 that over several years in the early 1990s experienced at least one AIDS related funeral each week. The fatalities were not limited to the gay male population but included those of all sexual proclivities and all ages including young children unfortunate enough to have been born with the virus. The tide was reversed in the late 1990s by education and preventative measures such as promoting the use of condoms, warning people of the dangers of sharing needles (not to mention the shift from heroin (needles) to meth, which initiated a new social plague), and the closing of the small bordellos that catered to the local population. These small brothels served as a secondary vector being the locus of two primary vectors, sex and needles. In addition the local population finally started to infer from the never ending processions of funerals of friends and family that this epidemic was real and behavior needed to be changed. Northern Thailand remains a model for reducing AIDS. Despite all its shortcomings bemoaned here on TV on a daily basis, Thailand had the political will to attack this epidemic, a political will that is still hard to find in hapless African nations. The political will included closing the small local brothels, promoting condom usage as well as pressuring the vested powers (politicians, the military, and the bankers) to move away from importing and distributing heroin which the poor used by sharing needles.

Big Pharma was never a factor in the rural north other than using it as a test population for many a phase II trial. That is not to say that Big Pharma is not corrupt. For those interested in a scathing criticism of Big Pharma I suggest reading Marcia Angel's book The Truth About the Drug Companies. But the corruptive forces within Big Pharma should not be confused with the reality of HIV.

[CHAIYENYEN]

You are one of the first people I have seen to have the balls to opened this door and on TV to boot. I have done the research as well and understand why you posted this statement. But "rubbers" do help prevent a host of STD, and unwanted pregnancy's. HIV and AIDS will always be a controvercy. The pharmacutical and thier investers are making a huge sum of money on this false hood.

As one who lived in rural northern Thailand through the 1980s and into the 1990s, I personally witnessed an otherwise healthy population drop like flies from AIDS and, more to counter your point, who had been clinically diagnosed as HIV+. There was no poverty, no drugs from Big Pharma, just a steady drop in population in a Tambon with a maximum population of about 8,000 that over several years in the early 1990s experienced at least one AIDS related funeral each week. The fatalities were not limited to the gay male population but included those of all sexual proclivities and all ages including young children unfortunate enough to have been born with the virus. The tide was reversed in the late 1990s by education and preventative measures such as promoting the use of condoms, warning people of the dangers of sharing needles (not to mention the shift from heroin (needles) to meth, which initiated a new social plague), and the closing of the small bordellos that catered to the local population. These small brothels served as a secondary vector being the locus of two primary vectors, sex and needles. In addition the local population finally started to infer from the never ending processions of funerals of friends and family that this epidemic was real and behavior needed to be changed. Northern Thailand remains a model for reducing AIDS. Despite all its shortcomings bemoaned here on TV on a daily basis, Thailand had the political will to attack this epidemic, a political will that is still hard to find in hapless African nations. The political will included closing the small local brothels, promoting condom usage as well as pressuring the vested powers (politicians, the military, and the bankers) to move away from importing and distributing heroin which the poor used by sharing needles.

Big Pharma was never a factor in the rural north other than using it as a test population for many a phase II trial. That is not to say that Big Pharma is not corrupt. For those interested in a scathing criticism of Big Pharma I suggest reading Marcia Angel's book The Truth About the Drug Companies. But the corruptive forces within Big Pharma should not be confused with the reality of HIV.

-ditto- could not have done better than this "documentation" of the plight in the north. witnessed the same death numbers in those days in the northern provinces. believe me, it was really scary then. glad to hear it is better now.

[CHAIYENYEN]

I'm in the medical field and in the late 1980's we saw cases drop like flies without medications. Most of us didn't knwo what was going on until a specialist came in and gave us the instructions how to deal with this deadly disease. I've seen the lab tests, the cells, the virus itself and how it works. There's no way some layman with no medical background can make such a claim based on internet surfing....pure ignorance and this misinformation could be deadly to those on the margins.

There's a good reason India ignored US patent laws to produce their own HIV drugs and other countries followed suit. HIV drugs were a money maker for the corrupt drug companies but the virus IS deadly and kills millions.

Take a viral microbiology class, go to medical school then come back and post this rubbish.

the wheeling and dealing behind Big Pharma will result only in very bad karma for the dealers. in time, a level plane will be set and the truth will be out.

too bad some of the untruths told about hiv and aids have come from the west and thank god, india and others have veered away from their western counterparts to go it alone without the west's meddling with this aspect of medical science and technology. otherwise the socratic oath would have been rendered meaningless even though they are taught in the most prestigeous medical schools in the west . veritas? one is not so sure anymore of the teachings from west anymore.

consider their intention to delay the accessibilty of the medication to the suffering masses. for what? for the big bucks? SICK! NO, VERY SICK BUNCH OF PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE !

as a suggestion, watch the movie "Philadelphia" and read the book , " and the band marches on " , for basic introduction to these scourges before the arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Edited August 16, 2009 by CHAIYENYEN

[CHAIYENYEN]

Considering the subject of the article HIV is not a problem for anyone excpet those who believe it actually exists. HIV is a lie from the american government and does not cause AIDS. AIDS is just a made up term for someones immune system destroyed by taking extremly toxic drugs that cause the problem in the first place. HIV will surface to be one of the biggest scams in modern day medical history of all time. do your research people. The truth will always eventually surface.

HIV is a harmless virus

http://www.fearoftheinvisible.com/silenced-voices-on-aids

am i saying have sex without rubbers?

YES

You are one of the first people I have seen to have the balls to opened this door and on TV to boot. I have done the research as well and understand why you posted this statement. But "rubbers" do help prevent a host of STD, and unwanted pregnancy's. HIV and AIDS will always be a controvercy. The pharmacutical and thier investers are making a huge sum of money on this false hood.

scary couple - both of you - one for advocating sex without rubbers and the other, apparently, for wanton sex. by claiming your website researches as the gospel truth!

are we to assume one of you works for BigPharma and the other, well, you know...

Edited August 16, 2009 by CHAIYENYEN

[nigelandjan]

A know of a person who was put in jail for some petty criminal activity. He was just being detained, but he used to call another friend about 3-4 times a week. We asked him how he got access to a phone. Seems that if you gave one of the officers a blow job, you got to make a phone call.

I am sure this isn't unique to Thailand.

3-4 times a week?....Wow...he must have really really wanted to speak to his 'friend'.

I hope if its was reverse charged he held his nostrills

[snuggzzz]

Thank you to those contributing to this thread, it is good and enlightening as well as informative.