'bangkok Hilton' Jailhouse Rocks

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's Lad Yao prison threw open its doors and turned on the glitz Tuesday to try and shed its reputation as the notorious "Bangkok Hilton" ######-hole where dozens of foreign drug smugglers have languished for years.

Swapping drab prison garb for pink tutus and tight green t-shirts, a troupe of transvestites and acrobats provided a colorful welcome to delegates from a five-yearly United Nations crime-busting conference in the Thai capital.

In manicured gardens within walls topped with electric razor wire, male and female inmates then put on carefully scripted displays of everything from Thai boxing to tai chi and a 16-piece band screeching its way through some classic jazz.

It was all a far cry from accounts by former inmates such as British heroin smuggler Sandra Gregory, who said she witnessed horrific brutality during her 4- years in Lad Yao's women's unit, including prisoners dying for lack of medical care.

For prison chiefs, it was a chance to show off smart new facilities, such as a 47 million baht ($1.2 million) library and health center in the women's unit -- even though it was paid for by Buddhist religious foundations, not the government.

"Sure they've put up some garlands and given it a new lick of paint, but the facilities you see will still be here when this is all taken down," said one prisoner, who did not want to be named.

Elsewhere, prisoners were seen studying zealously for open university degrees they hope will set them on the straight and narrow when freedom finally arrives.

"I think when I get out I will become a lawyer," said Thai prisoner Chukiat, four years into a 14-year term and with his nose glued to a hefty book on jurisprudence.

Officials at the prison, which also featured in hit Renee Zelleweger movie "Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason," defended Thailand's hardline sentencing of drug convicts, which follows on from a 2003 "war on drugs" in which at least 2,500 people died.

Human rights groups accuse the government of conducting a campaign of extra-judicial killings, something it denies.

However, some of the statistics -- 84 percent of Lad Yao's 4,786 female inmates were convicted of breaking drug laws -- raised eyebrows.

"What you can see is all right, but the sentences are cruel," said Michael Platzer, a former U.N. official responsible for crime and justice.

"It's a system designed not to reintegrate people. There's no way you can rehabilitate someone after 30 years. You wife or husband is dead, your children have gone. Your life is over." Visitors were restricted from seeing living quarters or from talking to Thai or foreign inmates for more than a few minutes before being hustled on by minders.

"This is all so fake," said another prisoner who did not want to be named. "They didn't even want us to be here because they were worried we would talk to people."

By Ed Cropley