Watchdog slams state of jails

Thailand’s prisons fail to meet international standards, with inmates routinely shackled, stuffed into overcrowded cells and forced to work in harsh conditions, an international human rights group said yesterday.

Thailand also has the highest incarceration rate in Southeast Asia, jailing 425 out of every 100,000 people, according to the report by the International Federation for Human Rights.

There are more than 260,000 inmates in 148 prisons with an originally estimated capacity of less than 120,000, the report said, with the massive overcrowding forcing inmates to live in harsh conditions.

The overcrowded conditions are made worse by high turnover among guards, forcing prisons to rely on skeleton staff, said the Paris-based human rights group.

Prisoners told interviewers from the rights group that overworked guards would beat them with clubs, throw them in solitary confinement, or keep them chained and shackled for weeks, despite government moves in 2013 to end the practice.

“The claim made by the Thai government that the country’s prison conditions conform to international standards is ludicrous,” said Dimitris Christopoulos, the president of the rights group.

Prison conditions violate various UN treaties barring torture and stipulating minimum prisoner rights that Thailand ratified decades ago, the group said.

Most inmates were convicted on drugrelated charges, the legacy of a war on drugs launched by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2003.

Under Thai law, possession of heroin or methamphetamine is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Government agencies involved in justice and narcotics issues say they are working to ease the problems.

“We’re trying to fix it,” said Kobkiat Kasiwiwat, director of the Corrections Department.

“They’re in the process of fixing drug laws to introduce milder punishments and push people towards rehab more, instead of throwing them in prison.”

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani in her briefing note expressed disappointment the Thai National Legislative Assembly had shelved the draft antitorture and anti-disappearance law, despite the government’s decision to enact the bill last May.

She called on t he government t o promptly reintroduce legislation of this law.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Virasakdi Futrakul, said during the High-Level Segment of the Thirty-Fourth Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva that Thailand respects human rights, where there have been many developments in the past year.

“We also have a new constitution that was approved in a referendum last August, which reaffirms, among other things, the principle of equal rights and protection under the law, non-discrimination, prohibition of torture, and freedom of religious beliefs,” he said.

“Thailand attaches great importance to the development of our human capital,” he added.