KEY ISSUES OF WOM EN PRISONERS:LESSONS LEARNED FROM THAI PRISONS
Dr. Nathee Chitsawang

I. INTRODUCTION
It could be said that the treatment of women prisoners has been ignored by people in the criminal
justice system for a long time as the female prison population is usuallyoutnumbered bymen.Although
recently there is a general rise in the number of female inmates in many countries around the world,it still would not trigger anynoticeable change in their treatment.More importantly,it seems that there
is an insufficient focus on the special needs of female prisoners which are fundamentally different fromthe needs of male prisoners.
This paper aims to briefly explore the major aspects of female inmates in Thailand and offer someexamples of their movement and changes,particularly the adaptation to the problems and the greaterawareness of this issue of female prisoners among Thai society, which has been primarily caused by
the gracious work of HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha, who has dedicated her great knowledge andremarkable ability to work closely with the Kamlangjai Project.In addition,in the final part,the topic
of the implementation of the Bangkok Rules in Thailand will be discussed, especially the overall
strategies and the factors facilitating its successful implementation.It is hoped that people from othercountries who are interested in the treatment ofwomen prisoners will gain benefits from learning about
Thailandʼs experiences.

II. CURRENT ISSUES FOR WOMEN PRISONERS IN THAILAND
In order to precisely understand the female inmates in Thailand,there are various significant topics
which should be highlighted.They can range from the inmates and their problems to the programmes
and projects provided. To be more specific, the current issues regarding the women prisoners in
Thailand are discussed below.
A. Prison Overcrowding
The most important issue is that there is a prison overcrowding crisis affecting the female prison
population which is likely caused by the fact that Thailand is generally considered as one of thecountries which has the largest number of women incarcerated in prisons while the total prison
capacity available is clearly insufficient.
According to the 2011 World Female Imprisonment List of the International Centre for Prison
Studies (ICPS), it was found that in terms of the proportion of male and female prisoners, thepercentage of female prisoners in Thailand was about 14.6% of all prison population and was ranked
number seven in the list of countries having the highest percentage of female prisoners in the world.

Deputy Director, Thailand Institute of Justice, Ministry of Justice, Thailand.

106

153RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTSʼPAPERS
Table 1:List of the Countries Having the Highest Percentage ofFemale Prisoners
Country

Percentage of FemaleInmates(%)

1.

M aldives

21.6

2.

Hong Kong ― China

20.0

3.

Bahrain18.5

4.

Andorra16.4

5.

M acau ― China

14.8

6.

Qatar

14.7

7.

Thailand

14.6

Source: Walmsley, R. (2011) World Female Imprisonment List (2nd Edition),International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS)With respect to the establishments for women prisoners,it should be noted that in reality there are
two types of correctional facilities for women prisoners:womenʼs correctional institutions,or prisonsfor only female inmates,and secondly,a small female prisoner unit existing inside the same perimeterof a menʼs prison, but their areas are clearly separated from each other. While the first type has thetotal of 8 women correctional institutions,the latter has 21 composed of 7 large units and 14 small units
for women inmates in menʼs prisons.
As for the large womenʼs prisoner unit, it can range from 700-1,000 prisoners, and the smaller one
can detain approximately 300-700 inmates.The most severe overcrowding tends to happen in the small
unit in menʼs prisons in which its total capacity should be only 50-70 female inmates.On the contrary,
in practice it has been doubled to incarcerate about 100-300 women. As a consequence, the female
prisoners have been imprisoned in a tiny space,without an area for taking physical exercise or doingother activities,such as education and vocational training programmes,because the establishment was
initially designed to imprison only 50 people.
Apart from the fact that all prisons and correctional institutions for women in Thailand have been
extremely crowded,it is worth noting that the female prison population is increasing.As illustrated in
Figure 1,it is clear that since September 2006 the number of female prisoners has gradually increased
from 23,740 to 35,344 in 2006 and 2012, respectively.
Figure 1:Female Prison Population (including remandees), 2005 ― 2012

Source:The Centre of Prisoner Statistics, Planning Division, Department of Corrections

107

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 90
It is believed that the reason whythe female prison population in Thailand has been graduallyrisingyear by year is that the women tend to be tricked or lured into the drug trade. Presently, about 82%
of all female inmates are drug-related offenders,while 65% of the total prison population in Thailand
committed crimes against the Narcotic Laws.Another reason causing the large female prison population in Thailand is that there is no effective measure for providing alternatives to prison in the Thaicriminal justice system. Consequently, it is seemingly unavoidable for the female offenders to becontinuously sent to prisons or correctional facilities. In fact, even when the laws allow using thealternative-to-imprisonment measures,for example probation and detention in other places which are
not prisons/correctional institutions under the Criminal Procedure Code,section 89,paragraphs 1 and
2,these practices have not been adopted seriously or used often.As a result,the trend is an increasing
number of female prisoners in prisons every year.
B. Shortage of Staff
The second key issue for Thai women prisoners is that there is a serious challenge in terms of theshortage of female prison staff since the total number of female prisoners has increased but the
government,on the contrary,does not have anyplan to increase the manpower in the public sector.The
statistics in Figure 2 show that the number of female officers has been quite steady, which is very
different and completely disproportionate to the rising number of female prisoners in Figure 1.
Figure 2:Number of Female Officers at the Department of Corrections, 2002 ― 2010

Source:Personnel Division, Department of Corrections

M ore importantly, in practice many of the female officers do not perform the custodial tasks forfemale inmates. In fact, approximately 70% of them work in office buildings,doing some administrative jobs,such as dealing with finance and accounting as well as producing paper documents.They arenormally appointed to replace the understaffed male officers who have to work inside the custodial
units.Consequently,there are only about 2 ― 4 females working in a female unit within menʼs prisons
where more than 100 female inmates are detained.In some large womenʼ
s units,there might be 7 ― 8female officers working in a 700 ― 800 inmate unit. Under these circumstances, the female prison
officers have to work in genuine hardship, with difficulty and at risk of catching numerous diseases
behind bars. On top of that, it seems very hard for the female staff to have a chance to launch any
treatment programmes to develop and rehabilitate the female inmates because each day they must
spend most of their time on disciplinary and security matters, such as preventing prison riots andescapes.
C. Characteristics of Women Prisoners
Interestingly, if it is necessary to explain and specify some characteristics of female prisoners in
Thailand, from my point of view, they can be described as: “drug-related; economic problems; un-108

153RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTSʼPAPERS
employed;being deceived;and harmless”. The first reason is that normally the majority of female
prisoners are offenders convicted for crimes against the Narcotic Laws.
Figure 3 below shows the offence types and their percentages committed by female convictedprisoners. The statistics, collected on 31 May 2012, indicated that among all 25,912 convicted female
inmates, about 81.77%, or a total 21,189, were offenders convicted for crimes against the Narcotic
Laws.
Figure 3:Percentage of Convicted Female Inmates Classified by Offence (as of 31 M ay 2012)

Source:The Centre for Prisoner Statistics, Planning Division, Department of Corrections

According to the statistics on female inmates convicted for drug offences in Tables 2 and 3, themajority of them were involved in methamphetamine (approximately 95%),particularly by selling andpossessing for selling drugs (nearly 74%).
Table 2:Number of Female Inmates Convicted for Crimes against
Narcotic Laws Classified by Type of Drugs(as of31 M ay
2012)
Type of Drugs

Number of Female Convicted Inmates

Heroine287

Cannabis

146

Opium

33

M ethamphetamine

20,235Inhalant

6

M orphine

0

Cocaine188

Others294

Total

21,189Source:The Centre for Prisoner Statistics,Planning Division,Department ofCorrections

109

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 90
Table 3:Number ofFemale Inmates Convicted for Crimes against
Narcotic Laws Classified by Type of Drug Offence(as of
31 M ay 2012)
Type of Drug Offence

Number of Female Convicted
InmatesCategory “Drug Use”
:
- Use

415

- Possession

2,047- Both use and possession

2,208

Category “Selling”:- Selling

6,973- Possession for selling

8,704- Others

842

Total

21,189Source:The Centre for Prisoner Statistics,Planning Division,Department ofCorrections

Regarding the range of age,the majority of female convicts are from two age groups: 20 to 30 yearsof age;and 30 to 40 years of age.Alternatively,it can be concluded that more than half of the female
prison population in Thailand is in the age range between 20 and 40 years old.
Table 4:Number of Convicted Female Inmates Classified by Age(as of 31 May 2012)
Number of Female Convicted
Inmates

Age
Less than 18 ― 20 years

809

M ore than 20 ― 30 years

10,094M ore than 30 ― 40 years

8,857

M ore than 40 ― 50 years

4,763

M ore than 50 ― 60 years

1,067

M ore than 60 years
Total

322
25,912

Source:The Centre for Prisoner Statistics, Planning Division, Department ofCorrections

Another reason to confirm that Thai female prisoners tend to be harmless is that more than half ofthem (about 61 per cent)were given relatively short prison sentences ranging from less than 3 months
to 5 years. This means that they did not commit violent crimes and were perceived as not dangerous
for society.

110153RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTSʼPAPERS
Table 5:Sentence of Female Convicted Inmates (as of M ay 31, 2012)
Sentence/Length of prison sentence

Number of Female Convicted
Inmates

Less than 3 months ― 2 years

6,570

M ore than 2 ― 5 years

9,280

M ore than 5 ― 10 years

4,178

M ore than 10 ― 15 years

1,583

M ore than 15 ― 20 years

1,085

M ore than 20 ― 50 years

3,015Life imprisonment
Death penalty
Total

195
6
25,912

Source:The Centre for Prisoner Statistics, Planning Division, Department of Corrections

In a nutshell, all above-mentioned tables and figures support my previous description of Thai
women prisoners at the beginning of this part to the extent that they are acknowledged as drug sellers,
young adults, harmless due to short prison sentences and so on.
D. Treatment Programmes
It is also important to highlight the rehabilitation of women prisoners as there have been various
successful treatment programmes in Thai prisons. Generally speaking, these programmes aim atenhancing all fundamental aspects of female prisonersʼlives, including vocational and education
training programmes,mental development and welfare.Furthermore,they are provided to prepare theprison inmates to be ready for their new lives after release.In short,the rehabilitation programmes for
women in the Thai correctional system cover the areas of:
Education: the educational programmes range from the basic level, vocational education,
degree level at the Open University to some courses in foreign languages.
Vocational training:there are varieties of vocational training programmes for female prisoners, such as handicraft making, cooking, fashion design and Thai massage.
Recreation and mental development:the recreation activities behind bars basically include art,
music and sports.Some examples of the projects are:“Art for all”project;prison choir;female
boxing, etc.
Changing and improving lives:in addition to treatment programmes involving manyactivities,
such as education, vocation, recreation and sports, recently Thai women prisoners have also
been provided with the rehabilitation based on the idea to change and improve the inmatesʼ
lives,especially the Kamlangjai Project and Sufficiency Economy Project,which can be usefulfor the inmates during the pre-release period.
(M ore information about the treatment programmes of women prisoners in Thailand can be foundin the paper:“Too many women in prison:a case study of an Effective Treatment of Female Inmatesin Thailand”).
It is crucial to point out that in reality all treatment programmes mentioned above cannot belaunched similarly in every prison and correctional institution even though there are some positive
outcomes as there are several limitations in terms of the shortage of staff, budget and physicalconditions in prison settings.Combined with some current issues of women prisoners discussed earlier,111

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 90
the increasing female prison population in the last six consecutive years can lead to more difficulties
of providing the women prisoners with effective custody and treatment. Therefore, the Kamlangjai
Project can be considered as a major initiative to effectively deal with these difficulties.

III. KAMLANGJAI PROJECT
Before the Kamlangjai Project was initiated in 2006, the condition and status of women prisoners
had not gained sufficient attention.At that time,the Thai prison system still placed a low priority on
the treatment of female prisoners as the difficulties in providing male prisoners with effective custodyand treatment were usually dominant and placed in a top list of priority. Because of this, it could besaid that the turning point was the Kamlangjai Project initiated by HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha who
recognized the root of the problems about the custody and treatment of female prisoners,which tended
to be immensely complicated and more sensitive than those of male inmates. The aims of the project
are to give considerable assistance and provide development opportunityto female prisoners while they
are behind the prison walls and also to those prepared to be released from prisons. At present, thisproject has been formally established in many prisons and correctional institutions nationwide.To put
it briefly, the Kamlangjai Project has created various new perspectives on the treatment of female
prison inmates, which had never happened before.
Furthermore, HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha also started a project called “Enhancing Lives ofFemale Inmates: ELFI”to raise the standards for the treatment of female prisoners. ELFI is aninternational project which can trigger a worldwide change in the insufficient standards of thetreatment of female inmates.It should be noted that these standards are very crucial and necessary as
the UN Standard M inimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were created more than 50 years ago.
Obviously, there are some parts of the minimum rules which are outdated and inappropriate to theworld today.More importantly,they cannot respond to the basic and specific needs of female inmates.
Because of this,HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha had initiated the idea to develop the Draft UN Rules for
the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial M easures for Women Offenders, which were
finally approved and adopted by the 65th United Nations General Assembly. The UN Rules for theTreatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders are usually known
as the Bangkok Rules, which were named for the place where the rules were initially developed.

IV. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE KAMLANGJAI PROJECTThe Kamlangjai Project has been carried out in many prisons and womenʼs correctional institutionsin Thailand in order to improve the custody and treatment of female prisoners and to support the
project to be widely acknowledged at the international level through an ELFI project which later led
to the formulation of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Noncustodial M easures for Women Offenders. From my experience in working in the project, there aresome interesting lessons which can be learned from its implementation so far as follows:
A. Special Needs
According to my increasing experience of working closely and focusing on the topic of women
prisoners, it is obvious that female inmates have special needs and basic necessities which are moresensitive and clearly different from menʼs, particularly the maternity issue which previously had notreceived special attention by manypeople in Thai corrections and also in some other countries.For thisreason, in the past there had been no apparent difference between the treatment of female and maleprisoners.More importantly,in some cases women prisoners had been treated worse than men or below
the treatment standard due to the physical condition and environment of prison and also the fact thatwomen prisoners were usually the minority of the prison population. Although there has been an
increase in the number of women prisoners recently and their problems appear to be spotted easier,it
can be argued that they still did not receive much attention.In other words,the prison authority might
not be keenly interested in overcoming the problems about women prisoners.
B. Non-Violent Offenders
In Thailand, it is believed that the majority of female prisoners are not the real criminals.To put
it simply, many of them do not have a true criminality. In fact, they perpetrated crimes because of112

153RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTSʼPAPERS
economic and financial necessity,in particular those crimes committed against the Narcotic Laws (seeabove, Figure 3 and Tables 2 and 3). Normally, they tend to be just an inmate group categorized as
small-scale drug dealers,which is about 82―85% of the total female prison population.It is found thatamong these women prisoners, some of them had been deceived into possessing, selling or deliveringdrugs;and some had been tempted into joining drug gangs on the grounds that they could earn hugeamounts of money.Having said this,there might also be a small number of female inmates who werelarge-scale drug dealers or professional drug offenders.
As shown in Figure 3,besides a group of drug-related criminals,the others were those convicted ofcrimes against property usually caused by the high and chronic stress of dealing with economic andfinancial problems as women must become more financially responsible for their own lives and theirfamilies as well.Also,there are some women prisoners who committed crimes against life and bodily
harm particularly against their husbands or boyfriends.In the latter case,it is found that the majorityof them had been mentally and physically abused for a long time by men.Because of this,they believedthat they must do something to stop the experience of being victims of abuse. To put it simply, thewomen are often recognized as “both offenders and victims at the same time”.In brief,it can be argued
that there is just a small group of female inmates who are real criminals or are genuinely bad or evil.
For this reason,the treatment and custodyoffemale prisoners tends to be much easier than that ofmen.
C. In Need of Diversion
Some aspects of the demographic characteristics of the prison population can reflect the criminal
justice system of each country. To be more specific, if a nation has many prisoners who in reality
should not have been strictly imprisoned in correctional establishments, it can be assumed that thiscountry apparently lacks the legal mechanism and effective measures for analyzing and classifying
offenders before sending them to prisons. For instance, in the case of Thailand, it is found that there
are many female prisoners who should not have been incarcerated in prisons,but they were finally sent
to do time inside prison walls because there is no effective diversion or alternative measure andefficient classifying system. As a result, there are too many women in Thai prisons who exceed thetotal capacity of correctional facilities,leading to the overcrowding crisis.Inevitably,it causes serious
difficulties in the custody and treatment of women prisoners, especially in terms of facilitating theimplementation of the Bangkok Rules.Central to this point is that the first step,in my opinion,in orderto successfully implement the Bangkok Rules in Thailand,is the proper use of alternative measures ordiversion in the criminal justice system.In other words,any country which does not try to employ thealternative measures will find it extremely difficult to put the Bangkok Rules into practice.
D. Negative Attitudes
Previously, Thai society had a specific view of the offenders, particularly in a negative way. For
example, Thai people tended to believe that all offenders must be severely punished for their crimes.
Therefore, the idea of providing prisoners with rehabilitation and treatment programmes was perceived as a soft measure on criminals since many ordinary people who were in an underprivileged
group of the society did not have opportunities as good as the prisoners did, or the same special
assistance that the inmates received.However,since the Kamlangjai Project was implemented,it seems
that people have changed their attitudes towards prisoners due to the charismatic personality andgracious works of HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha. Crucially, the Thai people have seen and realizedthat even the royal family is interested and truly dedicated to work on helping prisoners.Accordingly,
Thai society should begin to pay more attention,to view the inmates in the better way,and to lend theirhands to inmates, as well as to provide them with some mental support. M any activities in the
Kamlangjai Project have been overwhelmingly supported by the public and private sectors which arewilling to help the project, including commercial companies, a group of actors, artists, writers,
academics and researchers as well.To give some examples,the “Bra Charity”,a campaign aiming to
donate ladiesʼunderwear and lingerie to women prisoners, was participated in by many leading
department stores. Also, the “Kamlangjai Foundation Fund”has received increasing donations frommany people and private companies who want to help the prisoners.
In fact,in the initial phase ofthe Kamlangjai Project,HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha expressed someconcern that the activity could have run into resistance from society if the project had targeted allgroups of prison inmates to obtain special assistance.Because ofthis,the Kamlanjai Project in an early

113

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 90
period tended to focus on a group of mothers in prisons and their accompanying babies and children
because this issue was very sensitive. Obviously, people in Thai society quite agreed that the women
prisonersʼbabies and children did not do anything wrong and should not be punished in prisons liketheir mothers. For this reason, many parties were willing to support the project. After that, otheractivities have been added to the Kamlangjai Project such as the campaigns for improving health andhygiene of women prisoners,for giving the inmates inspiration,and vocational training,as well as the
pre-release programmes and so on.
E. International Cooperation
The massive support of the Kamlangjai Project, which obtained international recognition and led
to the adoption of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial
M easures for Women Offenders,can confirm to some extent that the problem of women prisoners does
not occur only in Thailand but also happens at a universal level. It is clear that many countries
encounter the same type of difficulty regarding the treatment of female prisoners as there are somesimilarities in the characteristics of their women offenders, especially their special needs. Moreover,
the women prisoners do not usually have real criminality or aggressive behaviours.As a consequence,
the international cooperation in enhancing the standards in the treatment of women prisoners in all
nations is absolutely crucial.By so doing,it possiblycan elevate the next level ofdevelopment in prison
systems of human beings.

V. IMPLEM ENTATION OF THE BANGKOK RULES IN THAI PRISONS
It was the first time that Thailand could perform the key role in successfully bringing about one of
the United Nations standards and norms to be internationally recognized:“
The United Nations Rules
for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial M easures for Women Offenders”or usuallyknown as “
The Bangkok Rules”. Basically, these rules should be adhered to by all nations as recommended guidelines for the treatment of female prisoners in their own countries.
In Thailand,it could be said that the adaptation of the Bangkok Rules is still in the beginning phase.
Although it is not officially compulsory for all countries to apply the rules, Thailand as the country
originally proposing the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Noncustodial M easures for Women Offenders, which were approved by the 65th U.N. General Assembly,
should be able to show its capability to become the role model for other nations in implementing all
relevant measures and performing prison work in accordance with the rules as much as possible.
However,it must be accepted that Thailand is still a developing country.Some of the measures on
the custody and treatment of prisoners have achieved relatively slow progress compared to otherwestern nations. As such, Thailand has to focus its efforts on improving the treatment of prison
inmates in various aspects but must be still in the consideration of the“less eligibility”principle,whichworks properly on the characteristics of Thai society.To put it simply,the treatment given a prisoner
should not be superior to that provided a member of the lowest significant social class in the freesociety.
To put it briefly,the implementation of the Bangkok Rules in Thailand can be separated into two
different levels of strategies:macro and micro frameworks.
A. M acro Level
At the macro level, or the broader picture of the Thai criminal justice system, there has been an
increasing effort to use diversion or alternatives to prison more often because it is believed that the
major obstacle to putting the Bangkok Rules into practice is the overcrowding of the female prison
population in Thailand. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to find more alternatives to prison for
women prisoners, such as the following measures:
The increasing adoption of the temporary release measures during court proceedings by using
the Electronic M onitoring (EM)devices to raise societyʼs confidence
The measures on detaining offenders in places other than prisons must be employed more

114

153RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTSʼPAPERS
often;for example, home detention by using EM to monitor the offenders
The greater use of suspension of sentences by placing the offenders on probation and by using
EM, which will be able to convince the courts to become more confident of putting theoffenders on probation instead of sending them to prisons
There shall be more prisoners who get parole together with probation by using EM in cases
where there are still some doubts about placing the prisoners on probation
B. M icro Level
In a lower level of analysis,generally there are many practical approaches and processes to help the
implementation of the Bangkok Rules in Thailand,in particular those relevant to each individual andagency within the criminal justice system. To give some examples:
There must be at least a prison which becomes the “role model”of the correctional establishment succeeding in the implementation of the Bangkok Rules. From my perspective,the unitof women prisoners at Ratchaburi Central Prison possesses the highest capability to perform
this role. By doing this, the prison authority must develop the settings and relevant issues inorder to accomplish the adoption of all 70 rules in this unit
The following step is to select other prisons to become the next role models after the successat Ratchaburi Central Prison, especially those 12 prisons which have already participated in
the Kamlangjai Project, and HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha previously went to work on the
project. Besides these 12 correctional facilities, other prisons are ready and are already well
prepared to implement the Bangkok Rules,so they should also participate.In fact,according
to the plan,it is hoped that in the future on an annual basis there will be about 10 prisons whichshould be able to consecutively achieve the implementation of the Bangkok Rules
It is also profoundly important to launch training programmes to provide the prison officers
nationwide with useful knowledge and new perspectives on the prisoners in order to makethem better understand how to work properly and effectively with women prisoners inaccordance with the Bangkok Rules
In terms of academic and scholarly approaches, there is a plan to conduct many studies andand much research regarding the implementation of the Bangkok Rules in Thai prisons byhiring professional experts from other countries to work as the advisors of the study
However, in order to effectively implement the Bangkok Rules it seems particularly complicatedsince there are various relevant factors which can lead to the success of the practical implementation.
Therefore, I conducted a small study to explore the critical factors influencing the adoption of the
Bangkok Rules in Thai prisons which will be discussed in the subsequent part.
C. Crucial Factors Facilitating the Implementation of the Bangkok Rules in Thai Prisons
The key questions which I wanted to find the answers to were how to successfully implement the
Bangkok Rules in Thailand,particularly in the sphere of prison work and what factors could assist in
the implementation.As a result,I decided to undertake an informal study during my time as a visiting
lecturer for a training programme at the Department of Corrections.
The data were gathered from 200 female prison officers from four groups of different sessions who
participated in the training programme. The programme was called “Working by conforming to theUnited Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners”,which was held at the Correctional Staff
Training Institution. The participants had completed the questionnaires and then joined in a group
discussion,which in turn became useful material for the qualitative data analysis.The study found thatthe crucial factors affecting the success of the Bangkok Rules implementation are as follows:
1. Prison Overcrowding
The majority of prison officers stated that overcrowding in prisons was the greatest obstacle to the115

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 90
adoption of the Bangkok Rules in Thailand. As previously discussed in the earlier parts, the Thai
prison system has encountered a prison overcrowding crisis for a long time among both male andfemale prisoners. In addition, according to the statistics (see Figure 1), since 2006 the female prison
population has gradually increased because of the fact that more women have entered into the vicious
cycle of crime, in particular crimes committed against the Narcotic Laws. This rising trend tends tooccur every year. The chronic problem is that the number of prison officers and prison facilities arestill almost the same.
The inverse relationship between the increasing female prison population and understaffing,
together with the stagnant number of prisons, poses real difficulties in following many rules of the
Bangkok Rules, especially about 20 rules regarding the medical service and the proper care for thechildren living with their mothers who are inmates in prisons.
Accordingly,the most necessary condition in implementing the Bangkok Rules in Thailand is thatthe number of women prisoners must be somewhat decreased by various possible alternative-to-prison
measures. This idea is actually in the line with the Bangkok Rules, which clearly support the properuse of non-custodial measures. At present Thailand had already amended the related laws which canfacilitate the idea,particularly section 246 and section 89 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Criminal Procedure
Code related to other places used to detain inmates instead of prison.In terms of the other measures,
they should be adopted,such as probation and parole as well as temporary and conditional release byusing the electronic equipment,which can enhance the public confidence in the custody of prisoners in
the community. It is believed that if the number of female inmates can be decreased by these alternatives to prison,the Bangkok Rules will be more efficiently implemented.Hence,it is quite obvious thatthe most crucial factor in implementing the Bangkok Rules in Thailand is that the number of women
prisoners must be decreased by various alternative-to-prison measures.
2. Actual Situation and Atmosphere in Prison
The actual situation or atmosphere in prison is another crucial factor. This can refer to both thespecific atmosphere and the current situation in each correctional facility, and also the overall
atmosphere of all prisons or the prison system in the country.To give an example,when there are drugs
and mobile phone smuggling prevention strategies, the prison atmosphere is entirely surrounded by acustody-oriented ambience and strict regulation. All correctional establishments tend to enhance thesecurity measures by assigning most of their prison staff to conduct the thorough search at the main
prison gate for visitors and vehicles and also inside the prison units to prevent the contraband
smuggling. Consequently, other types of activities, i.e. education and vocational training, recreationand social welfare activities, as well as the medical service and a good care of children staying with
their inmate-mothers,have been rather limited or more strictly monitored.In other words,under thesecircumstances,the operation in terms of the rehabilitation and other non-custodial activities,including
the implementation of the Bangkok Rules, seems to receive little attention and gets affected to someextent. For instance, Rule 28 states that:
Rule 28
Visits involving children shall take place in an environment that is conducive to a positive
visiting experience, including with regard to staff attitudes, and shall allow open contact between
mother and child. Visits involving extended contact with children should be encouraged, where
possible.
As previously discussed,under the circumstance that all prison visits must be strictly provided andthe prison authority maintains a custody-oriented atmosphere to prevent the smuggling of the contraband and all prohibited items into prison, it seems that the children who visit their mothers in prison
cannot have a positive experience or even have physical contact with their mothers behind bars.
The possible solution for this issue might be that all prisoners should be appropriatelyand effectively classified. The good classification procedures shall be able to separate a group of dangerous
prisoners,who pose high risks for causing trouble and disturbances,to be strictly kept in custody while
another group of well-behaved inmates can be imprisoned in a facility which promotes the rehabilita-

116

153RD INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
VISITING EXPERTSʼPAPERS
tion or creative activities in a less custody-oriented atmosphere and hence can work in accordance with
the Bangkok Rules.
3. The Number of Prison Officers and Support from Various Sectors
The majority of participants in this study tended to agree that the adoption of the Bangkok Rules
will not be successful if the prison authority cannot get adequately prepared in terms ofthe availabilityof manpower and the right attitudes of prison staff, although doing so is an official policy of the
Department or even under direct orders from the prison directors.
As partly mentioned above, the shortage of prison officers has been the major obstacle of the
Department of Corrections for the last ten years as the prison population, conversely, has gradually
increased from about 160,000 in 2003 to nearly 230,000 in 2012. Further, the quantity of correctional
establishments has risen from 125 to 143. On the contrary, the number of prison officers has not been
proportionately added because of the government policy to freeze the total number of civil servants inthe public sector.
To alleviate the crisis, the Department of Corrections has tried to recruit more government
employees, but there are still some legal limitations on the grounds that they are not legitimately
regarded as civil servants.Therefore,according to all relevant laws and regulations,due to their status
as government employees,they could not fully perform custodial work in prisons.In reality,it is very
normal to see a small group of prison officers working in prison units compared to the considerable
number of prisoners.For example,in a large prison where many units are clearly separated,there areabout 1,000 inmates controlled and supervised by nearly 10 prison officers.
Obviously, understaffing can lead to some difficulties in working in accordance with the Bangkok
Rules. To illustrate, one of the Bangkok Rules states:
Rule 13
Prison staff shall be made aware of times when women may feel particular distress, so as to besensitive to their situation and ensure that the women are provided appropriate support.
It must be noted that if the number of prison officers are still inadequate,it is almost impossible forthe prison staff to be fully aware of times when the female inmates suffer the above-mentioned distressor to provide active support in time as mentioned in the rule.
M oreover, the prison operation in accordance with the Bangkok Rules must be also derived fromthe cooperation from the prison officers working in other sections of prisons,as well as the clear policyof the prison executives. In order to provide the inmates with many rehabilitative programmes anddevelopment activities, it seems that more officers from custody units,supervision sections and otherdivisions must also engage in facilitating the programme events. Having said this,the prison officers
in the female prisoner unit usually have not gained full support because other officers tend to perceivethat the assistance is an extra burden apart from their normal duties. Because of this, it is very
important that all individuals behind bars must have the same attitude towards the inmates and similar
understanding as well as the explicit policy from the prison executives so that they all can work
harmoniously towards the common direction.
4. Knowledge, Understanding and the Recognition of the Importance of the Bangkok Rules
Another crucial factor influencing the dedicated work on implementing the Bangkok Rules is theknowledge,understanding and recognition of the importance of the Bangkok Rules.It is believed that
normally the prison officers, who have been working hard for a long time in the custody of inmatescausing most of the trouble in prisons, tend to personally have a specific negative perspective ofprisoners.To put it simply,this group of prison officers maintains that all prisoners cannot be changed
in a positive way. In other words, no matter how many treatment programmes are provided by theprison authority, the prisoners will never be successfully rehabilitated. Hence, the rehabilitative
activity is actually an unnecessary and burdensome task. This view was largely found among theprison staff,both male and female,who have been working in the prison service and quite close to the117

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 90
inmates for a long time.The negative attitude is indeed a major obstacle for the implementation of the
Bangkok Rules.Although these prison officers do not completely obstruct the Bangkok Rules project,they choose to apparently ignore it and do not provide any support. They just focus on their routine
functions and pass the time each day without thinking of the effective results of their work.
This difficulty could be overcome by providing the prison officers with more knowledge and abetter understanding about the concept and ideologyofthe treatment offemale prisoners in accordancewith the Bangkok Rules. Furthermore, it should be noted that many prison staff still do not haveenough profound knowledge of the Bangkok Rules,which in turn leads to the lack of support for anddedication to the adoption of the rules. For instance, some male prison officers or even the female
officers, who do not have any official role in adopting the rules, do not provide enough assistance orare not willing to give support.Accordingly,it appears seemingly inevitable to provide them with thecomplete knowledge of the advantages and the significance of the implementation of the Bangkok
Rules.
5. M otivation in Prison Officers
According to the questionnaires and the group discussion of the participants,the majority of themsuggested that the personal motivation was very important. It should be highlighted that to work inaccordance with the Bangkok Rules can be accomplished successfully by the strong motivation of thepractitioners,not because ofthe perception that it is a demanding task that theymust fulfill.As alreadydiscussed, the shortage of prison staff has continuously existed, and the prison officers have to work
very hard around the clock. In each unit, there might be only 3 ― 10 officers managing about 100
prisoners. M ost of their daily working hours are usually spent on completing routine and repetitive
missions.Therefore,to assign the correctional officers with new and challenging duties,they must be
extremely motivated.By doing so,it is very necessary to highlight the real benefits of this project forthe development of correctional work in Thailand,which can be greatly improved to the international
standard.If it succeeds,all practitioners taking part in the adoption of the Bangkok Rules will be truly
honored and appreciated for their work. Also the officers who are dedicated and devote a great dealof effort should be well paid and properly rewarded so that they will gain great inspiration andencouragement to keep working.In Thailand,last year the prison officers at the practitioner level from
Ratchaburi Central Prison had an opportunity to do a study tour in Singapore as it was a prison
achieving the most remarkable progress in the implementation of the Bangkok Rules.In cases of otherprisons,there might be different types of motivation and reward,namely job promotion,the chance toreceive special training, scholarships to study or to be trained, and study or exchange visits, etc.
Although there is a wide range of motivating factors,it is very necessary for the prison officers to bewell motivated in order to succeed in adopting the Bangkok Rules.

VI. CONCLUSION
To sum up,Thailand has encountered various difficulties in managing women prisoners,especiallythe prison overcrowding and the shortage of staff.On top of that,there seems to be a general neglectof special needs and the treatment of female inmates.However,due to the Kamlangjai Project initiatedby HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha, some major changes have occurred. Apart from the increased
awakening and awareness of the women prisoners, the project also led to the adoption of the United
Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women
Offenders.Thailand as the leading nation in proposing the Bangkok Rules must perform a major rolein supporting the implementation of the rules worldwide. Having said this, firstly Thailand must beable to work in accordance with the rules in our own country,which tends to primarily rely on various
key factors.It is hoped that these findings could be regarded as guidelines for other countries in orderto overcome their own nationsʼdifficulties or to focus on their key factors, which can help them tosucceed in the implementation of the Bangkok Rules.

118