Parole board under fire
Somkid’s case shows ‘loopholes’ in law
A fresh murder case in which paroled serial killer Somkid Pumpuang is the prime suspect has prompted Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin to urgently order the formation of a special committee tasked with monitoring prisoners and former prisoners involved in “serious cases”.
“A quick survey of our prisons found that there are currently about a hundred of these inmates,” said Mr Somsak.
“These prisoners require special measures to ‘control’ and ‘monitor’ them even after they are released from prison, for the sake of public safety.”
He likened the function of the new committee to Megan’s Law in the United States. Megan’s Law is the name of a federal law in the US requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders, which was created in response to the murder of Megan Kanka in 1994.
The minister said that since a review of the Corrections Department’s regulations on sentence reductions may take a long time to finish, dangerous criminals with violent tendencies should be separated from the general prison population.
“It’s an ideal short-term solution,” he said.
Mr Somsak said that Somkid’s case shows that a one-size-fit-all solution does not exist when it comes to laws and regulations regarding corrections and inmates.
“We might possibly need more electronic monitoring devices to be fitted on this ‘special’ group of inmates,” he said.
An urgent survey of prisons nationwide has been ordered, and the names of prisoners seen as “requiring special attention” will be listed before the government starts issuing new regulations to control and monitor their behaviour after their release.
“A probe has also been launched to see whether there were any lapses in judgement by the Corrections Department to reduce Somkid’s sentence,” he said.
Corrections Department directorgeneral, Naras Savestanan, said that following the case, the parole committee began discussing ways to make better decisions about which inmates deserve to be released from prison early.
“The nature of the crimes these prisoners committed will be taken into consideration by the parole committee, along with other factors,” he said.
“A clear set of conditions and prerequisites must be defined before the committee can adopt this approach.”
In the case of Somkid’s sentence reduction, since the current law didn’t disqualify him from receiving one, his actual prison term kept decreasing until he qualified for parole, he said.
“There should be new and tougher regulations to fix this loophole,” he said.
Pol Gen Winai Thongsong, a former deputy national police chief, who was
part of the police team which hunted Somkid down back in 2005 and brought him to justice, said Somkid was “a real smart person” and it wasn’t easy to catch him back then.
“He shouldn’t be released ever again,” he said.
Kritsanaphong Phutrakun, a criminology expert with Rangsit University, meanwhile, said lack of socialisation was the root cause of Somkid’s deviant behaviour.
“Somkid dropped out of school as a young child and had to live with a violent and abusive stepfather, which skewed young Somkid’s perception of society,” Mr Kritsanaphong said.
As for the Corrections Department, he said his previous research had found that it was almost impossible for the department to correct prisoners’ behaviour.
The department’s prisons were found to have exceeded their detention capacity by as much as two to three times, he said.
“The information we obtained from interviews with warders suggest that it is already difficult for them to simply prevent a jail break, which could happen at any moment,” he said.
“No one has the time to think about rehabilitating prisoners.”
The case of “Thailand’s Jack the Ripper”, a paroled serial killer arrested yesterday while attempting to escape his latest alleged sex and murder crime demonstrates a serious loophole in a criminal justice process that cannot effectively prevent re-offending. Somkid Pumpuang is accused of killing a divorcee he met on Facebook. He had moved into her house in Khon Kaen’s Kranuan district on Dec 3, just two weeks before she was found strangled on Dec 15. Somkid was nowhere to be found until he was nabbed yesterday.
Similarly gruesome as the Dec 15 murder is his past. Somkid received the death sentence for killing three women in the provinces of Mukdahan, Lampang, and Buri Ram back in 2005. The sentences were commuted to life imprisonment after he made confessions that were “useful” to each case. He also received life sentences for another two murders in Trang and Udon Thani that same year. Another woman escaped death in June 2005 when he was arrested as he was taking her to a hotel in Chaiyabhum.
The Appeal Court sentenced him to life imprisonment in August 2012 and he was paroled and freed on May 17 this year.
According to the Corrections Department, Somkid was a “model prisoner”, and his good behaviour secured him an early release, which now looks to have been a mistake as he appears to have killed again just seven months later.
The case has resulted in renewed calls from the public to impose capital punishment for sex crimes and murder. It has also cast more doubt over the criminal justice process as well as a state probation scheme that should have prevented a repeat of such offences.
Corrections Department director-general Naras Savestanan admitted in an interview with TPBS on Tuesday that mistakes were made in the agency’s parole screening process which allowed a dangerous prisoner like Somkid to walk free from jail so easily and after having served a fraction of his sentence.
The interview also shed light on how prison overcrowding makes it hard or impossible for authorities to try and effectively rehabilitate inmates so that they can become law-abiding citizens.
Mr Naras vowed to prevent such a case re-occurring. Yet, this is easier said than done given the correction system’s shortcomings.
According to Mr Naras, there are over 700,000 inmates behind bars. This number is “three times higher” than what the prison system is designed to cope with, let alone ensure that each prisoner properly takes part in a process that helps them turn over a new leaf.
The corrections chief did not say so, but there are reasons to believe there is a serious flaw in the probation system which suggests poor or no monitoring of parolees.
In practice there is supposed to be a support system to assist those on parole to adjust to life on the outside and avoid committing more crimes.
More importantly, the nature of Somkid’s original crimes pointed to him having psychological problems. It remains unclear, however, if the Corrections Department ever sought a psychologist’s opinion as to whether he was fit to be released from prison. There is no record that he received any treatment. Mistakes in screening prisoners for parole and a lack of monitoring after their release means killers and serious offenders like Somkid remain a serious threat to society.
The Corrections Department must correct these mistakes in order to not only prevent inmates from reoffending, but also to protect the public.