Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Prisons buckle under overcrowding
News, Published on 09/02/2020
» With only half a square metre of space to accommodate each inmate crammed in a cell, many end up sleeping sitting up.
A life in limbo
Spectrum, Published on 06/05/2018
» It is Monday morning in Suan Phlu, Bangkok. Its streets as busy as usual -- motorbike taxis rushing by, vendors selling fruit on the corner, a Koel singing its annoying song and someone somewhere cooking fish. The city is full of life. And yet, just a few hundred metres from the air-conditioned cafe in which I am sitting, more than a thousand men, women and even children are deprived of the ability to take part in this life. Seen from the soi's main street, the unassuming complex bears an equally unassuming sign which reads "Immigration Bureau". The building conveys little of the reality behind it.
Detention centres stuck in past century
Spectrum, Published on 18/02/2018
» 'Thailand 4.0" is the military government's oft-heard catchphrase, but Thailand's immigration detention system is a relic from a previous century. The need for detention centre reform is not simply humanitarian, but economic, social and political.
Victims or criminals?
Spectrum, Paritta Wangkiat, Published on 11/06/2017
» We live in two overlapping worlds -- one is safe, the other is not. This is the motto of drug users arriving at the house in the "white zone", as they put it.
Is 'White Prison' making Bang Khwang a darker place?
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 17/03/2013
» Bang Khwang Central Prison is undergoing a transformation under an initiative aimed at ridding the notorious "Bangkok Hilton" and eight other facilities of drugs and other contraband. The "White Prison" policy came into effect last May under new director Vasant Singkaselit. Under the policy, visitors have been banned from bringing food, clothes or other items for prisoners; even books are banned. Prisoners are allowed to meet visitors once a day for 45 minutes, up to two visits a week, while visitors can only seen one inmate per day. Inmate workshops have been cancelled, punishments have become harsher and access to help in case of medical or fire emergencies has been limited.
Overwhelming odds get better of efforts to stamp out prison drug trade
Spectrum, Piyaporn Wongruang, Published on 09/09/2012
» In the early morning of Aug 18, Nakhon Si Thammarat prison warder Od Sae Pua was shot dead on the way home from the prison where he worked for years. The reason was simply that he had refused to help smuggle drugs into the prison and that he reported the attempt to bribe him to do so to his bosses.
Dragons & butterflies, an inmate finds inner peace
Spectrum, Ezra Kyrill Erker, Published on 13/05/2012
» South African Alexander Krebs, known to friends and family as "Shani", arrived in Bangkok in April 1994 on a 10 day holiday. He was 34 at the time and writing a novel, but was also a 15-year-long drug addict who had a sporadic wild streak in him and had just broken up with his fiancee. His family thought the time away would do him good.
The jailhouse rocked ... Well, not quite
Spectrum, Published on 01/04/2012
» Let's call him Stan. That's not his real name, as this recently released prisoner doesn't want to get into even deeper trouble than he was last December and January, when for a period of almost one month, he was incarcerated at Samut Prakan prison.