Thai Justice Minister: Prisons must be free of drugs, mobile phones

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Justice Minister: Prisons must be free of drugs, mobile phones
By Digital Content



BANGKOK, Sept 29 -- Justice Minister Gen Paiboon Kumchaya has reiterated that prisons must be free of narcotics and mobile phones.

The minister plans to seek 1,000 more corrections officials jobs so that there will be enough warders to supervise about 300,000 inmates nationwide.

Gen Paiboon laid down his policies to the governors of 143 prisons nationwide last Friday. He stressed that there must not be any narcotics or mobile phones in prisons.

Entries and exits at prisons must be repeatedly checked. If regulations were strictly enforced, no banned objects could enter prisons, he said.

If a raid found any banned object in a prison, its governor would be held responsible, the justice minister warned. He admitted that there were still narcotics and mobile phones in prisons and concerned officials would have to solve the problem.

Gen Paiboon also said that he proposed to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha that nationwide prisons needed 1,000 more warders to add to their overall workforce to supervise over 300,000 prisoners nationwide. He also proposed to raise returns for the personnel and renovate prisons to increase their security.

Regarding narcotic solutions, the justice minister said that next week he would discuss the integration of narcotics-related budgets with representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health.

Asked about narcotics production in neighboring countries Laos and Myanmar, Gen Paiboon said that he provided the prime minister with relevant information so that her could negotiate solutions. He added that Thailand and other ASEAN members would fund sustainable solutions to narcotic problems in the neighboring countries. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2014-09-29

[seajae]

well there goes all the guards pocket money, as long as there are profits to be made this will continue no matter what they say

[NongKhaiKid]

If regulations WERE strictly enforced says it all.

[EricBerg]

No drugs or cellphones in prisons is wishful thinking. In European countries there are drugs and phones in prisons as well. Only in the highest security prisons they are absent. In the overcrowded Thai prisons with many wardens wanting to earn some extra money on the side it will not be possible I think.

[SoFarAndNear]

As the new rulers start to incriminate more and more things the country will also need more space in the jails...

[Emster23]

"If a raid found any banned object in a prison, its governor would be held responsible, the justice minister warned." I would suggest expanding that to include guards. I could see a set up of governor that attempts to enforce that ban by guards who profit by drugs and phone business if guards aren't in cross-hairs too. Perhaps even more so.

[Lupatria]

Maybe he made this statement because his neighbors became tired of his peace on earth blather

[FangFerang]

The story title says it all:

Thais should, well, be doing what they always were supposed to be doing, but ...well....we think they might not be, so we are saying and suggesting that, well, maybe, the people who were never not doing what they were supposed to be doing stop not doing what they shouldn't so we can all go on with doing what we said we were always doing in the first place (and always have).

[FangFerang]

double post edited out

Edited September 29, 2014 by FangFerang

[jacky54]

How about free of the innocent, the stitched up and those on inhumanly long LM sentences?

[rubl]

How about free of the innocent, the stitched up and those on inhumanly long LM sentences?

a former Dept. PM Pol. Captain had some ideas on clearing the deathrow queue, but I don't think that was much appreciated. As for LM cases, I was told only a dozen convicted, another dozen awaiting process. Now with 300,000 inmates none of that really helps.

I guess we should go down to square one and make lists of all prisoners, what they are accused of, what convicted of, what sentence, stage in appeal process, etc., etc.

Of course in parallel investigations in how to prevent someone getting to a stage of being accused/convicted and no I don't mean shoot on sight either.

300,000 on a population of 67 million, that's about 4.35%. This list shows a few more countries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate

ADD: scanning the list I noticed that a number of African countries not only seem to do much better than Thailand (in relation to incarcerated per 100,000), but even better than my native country of the Netherlands. Maybe we should send one of the reform committees and a few prison governors on an information gathering tour ?

Edited September 29, 2014 by rubl

[j15mth]

Read the Book "The Solitary Man " by Stephen Leather.Good read on how Prison system works here.

[mikiea]

pay the wardens or guards better. more job benifits, low intrest loans for house & car, help with tuition payments for kids school. extra medical care (dental & eyesite) .lock them in to a secure way of life on the condition that they will be a good employe. give them something that they will fear loseing. it works every where, why not here? :-)

[CMNightRider]

It would be naive to believe you could have a prison that is drug free. There are way too many clever ways to get drugs into prisons besides correctional staff bringing it in.

[dieseldave1951]

As the new rulers start to incriminate more and more things the country will also need more space in the jails...

incriminate maybe but you know if you have the key (thai baht) then no further case

if you are poor then your f--ked so prisions will be full of poor people only

a sound system

[Guitar God]

It's a good example of the futility of the drug war.

If they can't keep them out of prisons, how can they keep them out of the country?

[Oink]

Put phone jammers in all prisons. They are inexpensive and will solve one of the problems.