RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54

EFFECTIVE TREATMENT MEASURES FOR PRISONERS TO
FACILITATE THEIR RE-INTEGRATION INTO SOCIETY
Yossawan Boriboonthana*
I. INTRODUCTION
The treatment of Thai prisoners is under
the responsibility of the Department ofCorrections, Ministry of Interior, which has
the duty to take into custody andrehabilitate prisoners through institutionaland non-institutional treatment.
Institutional treatment is carried out inprisons and different types of correctional
institutions, i.e., correctional institutions
for women, young offenders, drug offenders
and open correctional institutions. Noninstitutional treatment is carried out
through parole, sentence remission, pardon
and penal settlement. Some measures
might be similar to the correctional
systems of other countries, others may bedifferent. Therefore, this paper hopes toprovide an opportunity to review thepresent the Thai correctional treatment
methods and bring about comparative
study which would to be beneficial to theThai correctional system as well as othersystems.
II. CORRECTIONAL TREATMENT
IN PRISONS
As stated in the Corporate Plan for the
Next Decade of Department of Corrections
B.E.2536-2545 (1993-2002), one of themissions related to correctional treatment
is “to rehabilitate prisoners and foster theirre-integration into society as law abiding
citizens.” To carry out this mission, theDepartment has implemented several
measures for rehabilitating, reintegrating* Chief of Correctional Development Unit, Bureauof Penology, Department of Corrections, Ministryof Interior, Thailand.

348

and developing the living skill of prisoners.
These measures range from classification
to pre-release programs and cover different
types of activities, such as vocational
training, contact visits, medical care anddrug treatment. The details of correctional
treatment in prison are presented in thissection.
A. Classifications of Prisoners
The Department recognizes theimportance of prisoner classification andregards this measure as a major means to
successful prisoner rehabilitation.
Accordingly, effort has been made to
implement prisoner classification systems
as much as possible. The following are thedepartmental directives on prisonerclassification in Thailand:(i) Each prison shall set up an induction
section or designated cells for newly
admitted prisoners. This is to allow
new prisoners to adjust to the newenvironment and to become familiar
with the prison regime.
(ii) Appropriate numbers of classification
officers shall be appointed in eachprison to carry out the above. Such
officers shall be fully trained andequipped with knowledge about theclassification process.
(iii)The staff in every prison shall recognize
the importance of prisonerclassification, and provide support toand cooperate with classification
officers. Trained Classification officers
shall not be assigned to work on duties
other than carrying out classification
tasks.
(iv) Every new prisoner shall undergo theclassification process from admission

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
until release. This applies to bothconvicted and prisoners awaiting trial.
Classification reports shall be kept inprisoner information files for further
use when considering the granting ofprivileges or punishment.
(v) T h e r e s h a l l b e a c l a s s i f i c a t i o ncommittee at every prison. This
committee is responsible for assigning
treatment programs and places ofconfinement for each prisoner. The
determinations on placement andprograms are made in light of theknowledge obtained about theindividual’s needs, background, offense
and severity, term of imprisonment,
capacities, interests and so on.
(vi) A monthly report on the progress ofclassification at each prison shall bemade to the Department Headquarters.
Despite having encouraged every prison
to implement prisoner classification
systems, the overall success rate is still far
from reaching optimum. There are only 12
prisons that have a separate section for
newly admitted prisoners, and another 33
percent have a designated area for new
prisoners. In terms of the numbers ofprisoners, only 59 per cent of prisons could
have all prisoners undergo theclassification process.
B. Work of Prisoners
According to the law, every convicted
inmate is required to engage in useful workin all prisons and correctional institutions,while unconvicted prisoners (ie, remand)
are required to work only for thecleanliness, health or sanitary conditionsof the prison. The work that is available
in the prison cover almost 25 areas of trade.
The aim in providing work programs is toinstill in the inmates good working habits,
to provide basic skills in trades which willassist them in earning a living after
release, and to make the best possible
economic use of prison labor.

In accordance with the ministerial
regulations, work provided to a prisoner
shall take into account the following
factors:(i) The term of punishment.
(ii) The physical strength of theprisoner.
(iii) Intelligence.
(iv) Disposition and skills or knowledge
expertise.
(v) R e s u l t s f r o m a n e c o n o m i cstandpoint.
(vi) Results from the standpoint oftraining and instruction.
(vii)Conditions of the prison.
Having used their labor in the work
programs, inmates receive 50% of the net
profit of prison industry sales.
C. Vocational Training
The purpose of vocational training in theprison is to provide skills and knowledge
which will be of value to inmates after theirrelease. Vocational training is offered bothin classes and workshops. There arevarious types of vocational programs which
include: agriculture, carpentry, barbering,welding, automobile repairing, dress
making, tailoring, radio repair, carpet
making, compositor, wood and bamboo
craft, mat making, masonry, etc.
The teachers who work with the inmates
can be classified into two main groups:(i) Prison officials who hold teachingcertificates and the officers (who are in
the workshops) assigned to teach at the
Adult School in prison. In addition,
assistant teachers are selected frominmates who hold teaching certificates,
and have shown themselves to be ofgood behavior, to help with someteaching duties.
(ii) Vi s i t i n g t e a c h e r s , e x p e r t s a n d
specialists from various institutions,such as local vocational schools and theDepartment of Industrial Promotion,
invited to teach the inmates.

349

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
D. Academic Education
The main policy of the Department ofCorrections is to provide inmates various
forms of education according to theirindividual differences. Educational
services are carried out under the close
supervision of the prison authority. The
Department of Corrections reguires thatevery prison and correctional institution
provide at least one adult education schoolfor inmates.
Adult education curricula are employed
under control of the Non-Formal Education
Department, Ministry of Education. The
inmates who attend classes provided by theprison authority are eligible to takeequivalent certificates issued by the
Ministry of Education or the authority
concerned.
1. Curricula for Inmates(i) General Education: General education
programs are provided for inmates on
4 basic levels:• First Level : this level is for theilliterates. The program will take six
months to complete early primaryschool.
• Second Level : this level serves theinmates who are able to read andwrite the Thai language. It will takeapproximately six months to finish
middle primary school.
• Third Level : the inmates who havecompleted Level 2 will be able tostudy at this level. One year and ahalf is needed to get through thislevel.
• Fourth Level : this level is provided
for the inmates who have alreadycompleted Level 3. A period of one
year and six are needed for them tosucceed.
(ii) Higher Education: The Department ofCorrections also has a policy to support
inmates who are interested in further
education by providing them the chancefor higher education through350

correspondance courses with the Open
University.
E. Religious Activities
Buddhism courses are provided top r i s o n e r s a t 3 l e v e l s : b e g i n n e r,intermediate and advanced. Religious
instructors are either prison chaplains or
qualified Buddhist monks who are invited
to instruct in the prison. As for otherreligions, religious instructors of eachreligion, like Muslim, Christian and so on,
are invited regularly to conduct religious
courses according to their own faith.
Moreover, during weekends or on special
occasions, these instructors are invited toperform religious rites inside the prisons.
F. Drug Prevention and Treatment
Programs
Although drug addicted prisoners haveto quit using drugs during incarceration,
drug spread still exists in some prisons.
Therefore, the Department has toimplement some measures to prevent andsuppress this problem. Some of thesemeasures are as follows:(i) Segregation of prisoners who have ahistory of drug misuse to the Drug
Rehabilitation Center or special units.
Those prisoners will be closely watchedon their behavior and communications
with outside visitors.
(ii) Routine searching and inspecting of
those who enter the prison.
(iii) Searching of packages, mail, food etcthat is sent from outside to prisoners.
(iv) Random searching of the rooms andpersonal items of the prisoners,
without advance notice.
(v) Regular urine tests of prisoners inorder to identify drug addicts. Those
who are found to have drugs in theirurine are transferred to institutions for
drug addicts or special units for drug
addicts, and they will be closely
watched on their behavior.
(vi) Establishing of a prison canteen in the

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
front of the prison. Relatives who want
to bring goods and items to prisoners
are urged to buy them from the prison
canteen. Goods and items from theprison canteen would be wrapped andsealed by prison officers in order toassure that such packages, are drugfree.
(vii) Establishing a mobile unit which isauthorized to conduct random
searches at any institution, without
advance notice, in order to seach for
drug smuggling into the prison. Thisunit, headed by the Department’s
inspector, consists of well trained
prison staff from various prisons. The
work time-table of this unit isconfidential.
Besides the preventive measures, thecorrectional institutions for drug addicts
have provided treatment programs for drug
addicted prisoners which consists of 3stages:(i) Withdrawal stage: Detoxification
methods used in institutions are basedon going “cold turkey” without
methadone. According to this method,
the patient may suffer from side effects,
such as insomnia, anxiety, nausea andvomiting or diarrhoea. Some medicine
may be given in order to relieve these
symptoms.
(ii) Psychological and physical recovery
stage: Psychological treatment is aimed
to restore and reconstruct self confidence, morals, and an attitude to
be independent from drugs. Individualand group counselling, moral training,as well as community therapy, aresignificant tools in this form oftreatment. Physical reconstruction,
which is done at the same time as
mental treatment, is aimed to restore
body strength and fitness, as well as toinstill order and discipline. Daily
exercise and drills are used in thisstage.
(iii)R e h a b i l i t a t i o n s t a g e : B e s i d e s

psychological and physical treatment,
vocational training, formal education
and work are the main elements of therehabilitation program. There are morethan 25 kinds of vocational training
offered in prisons. The Adult
Educational Scheme, ranging fromelementary to undergraduate level, isalso provided in prisons. Moreover,those who work in prisons gain thebenefit of 50% remuneration of the net
benefit.
M o r e o v e r, t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f
Corrections has implemented theT h e r a p e u t i c C o m m u n i t y ( T. C . ) t o
rehabilitate ex-drug addicts mentally andphysically. T.C. was firstly introduced to
the Department by the Office of the
Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), anddeveloped in the correctional setting by
Daytop International Inc., USA andCommunita Incontro, Italy. In 1996, theT.C. program was implemented in 75
prisons and correctional institutions where
drug addicted prisoners were imprisoned.
There were 2,316 ex-drug addicts who
actively participated in this program.
G. Regular Visits and Contact Visits
1. Regular Visits
In general, prisoners are entitled to havevisits as often as circumstances and thefacility permit. Visitation is allowed on
weekdays for a period of 30 minutes during
office hours. Prison officials have the right
to: hear conversations between prisoners
and visitors; patrol around visiting areas;search visitors; and to remove visitors outof the prison when necessary. In the typicalvisiting room, there is iron bar barrier,providing a one meter distance between theprisoner and visitor, to ensure that there
is no contact. Prisoners are allowed toreceive permitted items that visitors bringin for them. Cash given to prisoners must
be deposited into the prisoner’s account.
As for visitors, there is no limit on thenumber of persons wishing to visit the351

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
prisoner, but the visitor’s Identification
Card and information must be recorded,
and they are subject to search before
entering the prison. Visitors are requested
to stay within designated areas.
In terms of frequency, prisoners arenormally allowed to have a visit at least
once a week. In some prisons, wherecircumstances permit, prisoners may beallowed to have visits a few times per week.
Visits may be suspended for a period of no
more than 3 months if the prisoner
breaches any rules or regulations.
2. Contact Visits
This program aims to strengthen the ties
between prisoners and their family
members, by allowing visits where there
is no barrier that hinder theircommunication. Visitors (no more than 5
per prisoner) are allowed to enter into theprisons and remain in designated areas.
While having a contact visit, prisoners areallowed to take meals and talk freely with
their family for a period of 2 hours. Visitors
and prisoners are subject to being searchedthoroughly before and after a visit.
Prisoners who are eligible for this visit
must be in the ‘good’ class or above. The
contact visit may be revoked if a prisoner
breaches prison rules and regulations. The
Department holds contact visits twice ayear, and each visit period lasts for 10 days.
The Department also holds a contact visit
for foreign prisoners during the Christmas
holidays.
H. Medical Care
During custody, sick inmates are treatedaccording to their illness by the
Department’s physicians. Facilities forminor treatment are available in eachprison. Serious medical or psychiatriccases, requiring emergency treatment or
intensive care, are referred to either
outside hospitals or the Medical Prison
located in Bangkok.
Like other governmental agencies in352

Thailand, the Department has faced ashortage of medical doctors. So the
Department has hired part-time doctors tolook after sick prisoners. In 1996, 49,321
sick prisoners were provided treatment by
8 part-time doctors in 9 prisons.
I. Child Care in Prison
Nursery units will be provided for the
day care of children in prisons where there
are pregnant prisoners or children attachedto their mothers. Mothers and children will
receive adequate nutrition based diet,medical services, and learning activities.
During the night time, children sleep with
their mothers and are nurtured by babysitters during the day. According to the
Department’s regulations, children are
allowed to stay in prisons until they are 3
years of age. Prisoners’ children can stayin correctional institutions only when there
are no outside institutions available forthem.
J. Prisoner Welfare
The Department of Corrections has
provided social welfare services for
prisoners as follows:
1. Prisoner’s Hygiene
In 1996, the Department has provided
1,100,000 Baht to every prison to purchasehygiene materials for prisoners.
2. Sport and Recreation
Recreation and entertainment facilities,
both indoor and outdoor, are available toinmates in all institutions. These include
reading libraries, televisions, film showings
and various types of sports and games.
Participation in recreational programs isvoluntary. Recreational activities ininstitutions provide many benefits toprisoners, such as relaxation, good healthand group relations.
3. Music
The Department has supported prisons/108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
institutions to have musical instruments,
both traditional and modern ones, as wellas prison bands, especially in institutions
for young offenders.
4. The Sparrow HomeThe Department has cooperated with
NGOs to establish a house named “Sparrow
Home” to take care of the prisoners’
children until they are 7 years old. Children
will be taken care of by this charity groupand will be taken to visit their parents
regularly. This project has become very
successful and represents well the attemptsof the Department to treat inmateshumanely.
5. The Assistance to No-relatives Prisoners
Every year, the Department holds
contact visits to provide the opportunity for
relatives to visit inmates inside prisons
without any barriers. However, there are
a number of prisoners who have no
relatives who visit during their period ofincarceration. The Department has tried
to help these prisoners by seeking
assistance from various agencies. Every
year there are charity organizations
donating food and necessities for theseprisoners.
III. EARLY RELEASE SYSTEM
The existing early release measures inThailand are parole, sentence remission,
pardon and penal settlement. Somemeasures like parole, sentence remission
and pardon might be similar to othercountries, but the measure of penal
settlement might be rarely known. The
details of all these measures are discussed
below.
A. Parole
Parole was implemented in Thailand in
1937. This mechanism is granted toprisoners who show good conduct andprogress in rehabilitation, and who have

served the minimum period of theirsentence as specified by the law. Thatmeans that parole is not the right of all
prisoners, but will be a benifit applied to
selected and eligible ones.
1. Parole Board
There are 2 levels of parole board
ranging from the prison level todepartmental level. The parole board at
the prison level consists of thesuperintendent and 2 other heads of thesubdivision. The parole board at the
departmental level consists of 7 highranking officials, including the Deputy
Director-General of Department ofCorrections who acts as a chairman of theboard, and other relevant officials fromconcerned departments such as the
Department of Public Welfare, Departmentof Public Prosecution, Department of
Public Health and Police Department
respectively. The board has to submit its
suggestion to the Director-General of
Department of Corrections for final
approval. Therefore, the decision to grantparole to qualified prisoners by the
Director-General is final.
2. Eligibility for Parole
The rule of Penitentiary Act of 1936
states that the qualifications for prisoners
to be eligible for parole as follows:(i) Must be a convicted prisoner showing
good conduct and progress in education.
(ii) Must have already served more than
two-third of the time fixed in thewarrant of imprisonment as the termof sentence, or not less than 10 years
in the case of life imprisonment.
(iii)Must be an ‘excellent’ class, ‘very good’class or ‘good’ class prisoner.
(iv) The ‘excellent’ class of prisoner may be
granted parole for not more than onethird of the time fixed in the final
warrant of imprisonment.
(v) The ‘very good’ class of prisoner may
be granted parole for not more than353

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
one-fourth of the time fixed in the final
warrant of imprisonment.
(vi) The ‘good’ class of prisoner may be
granted parole for not more than onefifth of the time fixed in the final
warrant of imprisonment.
B. Sentence Remission
Sentence remission was introduced into
the Thai correctional system in 1978. It is
used as the benefit for the ‘good’ conductprisoner. There are two different types ofsentence remission:(i) Good time allowance which is given to
prisoners who: serve their sentence forat least 6 months, show good conduct,
and are in the ‘good’ class or above. The
number of sentence remission days
given to those prisoners will depend on
their class, i.e.: Excellent class earns 5days a month, Very good class earns 4days a month, Good class earns 3 daysa month.
(ii) Public work allowance which is given
to prisoners who are participating inpublic work programs. Prisoners whoare convicted and are in the ‘good’ classor above will be eligible for the public
work allowance when they serve halfof their sentence.
The aim of the public work program isto provide an employment opportunity toprisoners and to utilize prison labor for
public and community interest. Under thisscheme, prisoners who are eligible to workoutside the prison, and have passed thescreening process, will be assigned to workin various types of public work projects
such as drain-pipe cleaning and canaldredging. Apart from remuneration,prisoner shall have a one-day sentence
remission for each day of working outside.
The days of sentence remission from thissystem can be counted together with theallowance from the good conduct allowancesystem. Regarding incentive payments for
prisoners, 85% of net profit is divided
among the prisoners who have engaged in354

the work.
C. Royal Pardon
The Royal King’s Pardon is part of thesovereignty that the King, as the head ofstate, may grant to anyone. Under theConstitution, the King has power to grantpardon to commute, reduce or terminate
sentences with or without conditions. Suchpardons would overrule all the previous
convictions. There are two types of RoyalKing’s Pardon; the collective pardon andindividual pardon.
1. The Collective Pardon
Whenever there is an important eventin the country, such as to mark their
Majesties 60th Anniversary, the Golden
Jubilee and so on, the Cabinet may submita recommendation to His Majesty the King
to consider granting the Royal King’s
Pardon to commemorate these important
events. The Royal Pardon will be in theform of release or sentence remission.
Statistics of the Royal King’s Pardon
granted during past 10 years are shown in
Table I.
2. Individual King’s Pardon
Any convicted prisoners, or theirrelatives, have the right to submit apetition to His Majesty the King for royal
clemency. This is stipulated in the Penal
Code and the Penitentiary Act. Prison
officials, upon receipt of such a petition,
shall forward it to His Majesty the King
through a designated channel. The
channel begins at the prison where all
information on prisoners is filed. It is thenforwarded to the Department
Headquarters, to the Minister of Interior,
to the Prime Minister, to the Office of His
Majesty Principle Privy Secretary, to the
Privy Council and to His Majesty the King.
However, once the petition is denied, aprisoner has to wait for two years to resubmit their petition again.
Death sent ence prisoners shall not be

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
executed once they have submitted apetition to His Majesty the King for Royal
Pardon. As long as there is no notice
whether or not the Royal King’s Pardon is
granted or denied, such prisoners remainon the death row.
D. Penal Settlement
Penal settlement is another type ofprogram which has been set up as a place
for pre-released prisoners, as the next stage
after prison, so as to help them re-adjust
to the community. At present, there is only
one penal settlement in Thailand called
Klongpai Penal Settlement. The Klongpai
Penal Settlement, established in 1977, islocated in Nakornrachasima Province andthe total area is 4,450 acres. Prisoners whoare selected to enter the Klongpai Penal
Settlement, are required to practice
farming and agricultural schemes. They
are, of course, given land for living andagricultural purposes. Moreover, they areallowed to settle down at the penal
settlement after their sentence has expired,as the period of stay is unlimited.
Qualified and selected convicts areallowed to bring their family to stay withthem while being treated in the penal
settlement. They are also required to build
their own house or cottage in the area
provided by the penal settlement.
Nowadays, the Department has ceased tosend prisoners to the penal settlement due
to problems in land sharing.
E. Pre-release Programs
The Department has recognized theimportance of preparing prisoners before
release into society. The pre-releaseprogram was separated into 2 services thatare ‘Group Counseling’ and ‘Group
Guidance’. The operation of the pre-releaseprogram is as follows:(i) Interview of individual prisoners so as
to find out living problems, such asproblems in employment and educationof their children.

(ii) Group Guidance provides knowledge
and information on career management
to prisoners.
(iii)G r o u p C o u n s e l i n g p r o v i d e s
psychological counseling to prisoners tobuild up their ability to adapt
themselves to society.
(iv) Persuasion of prisoners’ relatives toparticipate in rehabilitation programs
before release.
IV. TREATMENT FORDISCHARGED PRISONERS IN THE
COMMUNITY
At present, the major ‘treatment’ methodfor discharged prisoners in Thailand isprobation. This measure is applied toparolees and sentence remission releasees.
The responsible organization for probationis the Probation Bureau, which is under
the Department of Corrections.
Meanwhile, other kinds of treatment forunconditional releasees are not fully
developed. There are only some services
provided to releasees by NGOs.
A. Probation
Prisoners who are released on parole orby sentence remission are subject tosupervision under the conditions set by the
Department. These conditions are as
follows:(i) To refrain from committing crimes.
(ii) To refrain from entering any areas so
determined by the competent authority.
(iii)To abstain from consuming narcotics
and from gambling.
(iv) To report in person to the competentauthority designated by the DirectorGeneral of the Department.
(v) To carry on with the occupation
arranged and supervised by thecompetent authority.
(vi) To resume their former occupation ortake up the occupation as arranged andsupervised by close friends or relatives.
(vii)To practice his/her religion.

355

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
1. Investigation
Investigation is the method before
prisoners are released on parole or sentence
remission. A probation officer will interview
the prisoner and visit their home toinvestigate the background of their family,
education, job and way of life, in order toinform the results to the Committee. In
this case, the prisoner must have aguarantor who promisses to accommodate
and monitor him/her.
2. SupervisionThis method is applied after prisoners
are released into the community on paroleand by sentence remission. Supervision isconducted by the probation officers and thevolunteer probation officer in regard to theliving conditions of releasees, including
relations to family, job and neighbors, andto give guidance to them.
3. Breach of Conditions
If parolees or probationers fail to comply
with any conditions, they may be arrested
without warrant and imprisoned for theremaining period of their term of sentence.
Disciplinary charges will also be brought
against them. The number of releasees who
breach conditions are shown in Tables II
and III.
As seen in the statistics, although thepercentage of breach of conditions is very
low, the early release measures are not
popularly used in the Thai correctional
system. When compared with the total
releases, the percentage on early releaseis only 30-40%. The reason for this is that
there are not enough probation officers tosupervise releasees, and the grant process
takes so much time that most qualified
prisoners are released before parole isgranted.
B. Halfway House
While probation is the major form oftreatment for parolees and otherconditional releasees, the halfway house is356

the treatment for all releasees. The
purpose of establishing halfway houses isto provide substantial assistance toimmediately released prisoners during thecritical readjustment period, as anaftercare scheme. The types of assistanceinclude places to live, meals, help in finding
jobs and counseling services. Furthermore,by sharing their environment with othersin the same situation, the prisoner will nolonger feel that their problem is unique,and their will be in an environment which
understands the special difficulties andfrustration of their status. It is expected
that, by a combination of their own
initiatives and relevant help from the otherresidents and staff, the resident will soon
be able to emerge from difficulty andbecome confident in making post-releaseadjustment successful .
The construction of the halfway house
was finished in September 1996. It willserve as a welfare residence for prisoners
who have problems upon release. It is
expected to be fully operative by the fiscal
year of 1997.
C. Volunteer Probation Officers
In 1977, the Department of Corrections,Thailand established the Volunteer
Probation Officer Program for assisting
probation officers of the Department tosupervise parolees and those who are on
sentence remission. In 1998, there wereabout 14,000 volunteers who workthroughout the country. These volunteers
are interested persons who are aged above
25 years and have secure jobs. They willbe trained for 2 days on probation work andrelated topics, and will attend a seminar
every year to promote their knowledge andto exchange experiences and problems.
They do not receive any payment except
the transportation fee which is 120 baht
or 400 yen per case.
Generally, volunteers are recruited fromrespected persons in the local community.
They come from all types of occupations,

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
such as teachers, farmers, chiefs of village,monks and retired government employees.
Thus, for nearly 20 years the volunteer has
played a significant role in helping theprobationer readjust to society.
V. CONCLUSION
The Department of Corrections ofThailand agrees with the assumption thatthe rehabilitation and reintegration of
offenders should start at the time offenders
enter prison, and should continue until
they are released into the community.
However, the implementation of measures
for fulfilling this goal are not easy.
In 1998 there were 138,000 prisoners
confined in prisons and correctional
institutions all over country, while there is
only 80,000 capacity available. The influxof offenders coming into prison is becauseof the government’s crack down policy on‘Speed’ pills (Amphetamine), which has
resulted in a great number of drug
offenders being incarcerated. When serious
overcrowding situations occur in the Thai
correctional system, the Department’s
resources have to mainly be employed forcustodial projects such as the constructionof new prisons, the remodeling of outdated
prisons and an increase in manpower.
Moreover, the economic crisis which we are
now facing creates a limited budget. Many
projects and programs related to therehabilitation of prisoners are held back orhave had their budgets cut.
However, the Department of Corrections
has continued to achieve the goal of
rehabilitation and reintegration ofprisoners, athough there are many
obstacles for rehabilitation like theovercrowding situation and the budget
cuts. The outcome of the rehabilitation ofprisoners in Thailand might not be very
impressive for colleagues in othercountries, but progress as our goal still
persists.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 54
TABLE INUMBER OF ROYAL KING’S PARDONS GRANTED 1977-1996
Occasion

Year
1977

Unconditional
Release13,359Sentence
Remission
22,319

Royal Marriage of HRH
Crown Prince
His Majesty the King’s 50th
anniversary birthday
Royal Ordination of HRH
Crown Prince
Her Majesty the Queen’s
birthday
Bangkok Bicentennial
His Majesty the King’s 60th
anniversary birthday
His Majesty longest
accession to the throne
90th anniversary of the
Princess Mother
Her Majesty the Queen 60th
anniversary
His Majesty the King’s 50th
year accession to the throne

1977

17,53923,0101979

12,03332,1581980

16,16429,661

1982
1987

18,43837,40036,18846,603

1988

22,922

34,215

1990

20,13332,697

1992

30,62035,861

1996

24,751

57,815TABLE IINUMBER OF PROBATIONERS FROM 1987 TO 1997
Year
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997

358

Sentence Remission
Granted11,49010,871
9,721
10,392
9,363
11,321
12,02014,003
17,46017,543
19,824

ParoleGranted
2,778
787
1,220
1,768
956
945
1,282
2,088
2,114
805
1,114

Breach ofConditions
88
20
48
43
44
54
50
86
88
62
42

Percent of Breachof Conditions
0.6
0.2
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2

108TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERSTABLE IIITHE PERCENTAGE OF CONDITIONAL RELEASEESCOMPARED WITH ALL RELEASEES
Year

1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997

Released on
Conditional
Release12,266
13,302
16,091
19,574
18,34820,938

Released byTerminationof Sentence
28,73324,29331,98732,31532,387
27,119Total
Releasees
40,99937,59548,07851,88950,73548,057

Percent of
Conditional
Release
30
35
33
38
36
44

359