Policy, Policing, Courts & Prisons in the Thai Criminal

Thai Prisons/Non-Thai Prisoners: Policy, Policing, Courts & Prisons in the Thai Criminal Justice System Ashley Hayes Benjamin Hoffart Sena Ku Katherine Kunz I. Introduction Bang Kwang Central Prison sits aside a surprisingly wide and quiet street in the otherwise crowded and hectic north Bangkok neighborhood of Nonthaburi. Guards in neatly pressed khaki uniforms and mirrored sunglasses walk briskly from their shaded posts to repeatedly and forcefully remind passersby to take “no picture” of the dirty white walls, rows of rusting barbed wire, and foreboding guard tower. Nicknamed the “Big Tiger” by locals for its ability to “eat men alive,”1 Bang Kwang houses nearly 8,000 men serving sentences of thirty years to life imprisonment in notoriously unsanitary, hot, humid, overcrowded, and violent conditions frequently described as “hell” by former inmates.2 Even though Bang Kwang is just one of twenty-six central prisons and one of nearly 160 correctional institutions in Thailand housing nearly 260,000 prisoners,3 the prison has achieved particular notoriety outside of Thailand both for its shocking conditions and for the proportionally high number of foreign prisoners behind its walls. While Bang Kwang may be the Thai prison best known outside of Thailand due to the relatively high number of Western prisoners that it holds, the reported conditions are highly indicative of those found in most Thai prisons. The United States Department of State stated in its most recent country report on Thailand that “[p]rison conditions were poor and overcrowded. […] Sleeping accommodations were insufficient. Medical care was inadequate, and communicable diseases were widespread in some prisons. […] 1 This World: The Real Bangkok Hilton (BBC television broadcast Jul. 22, 2004) [hereinafter This World: The Real Bangkok Hilton], transcript available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/this_world/transcripts/this_world_bangkok_hilton22070 4.txt. 2 See SEBASTIAN WILLIAMS, SEND HIM TO HELL: JOHN DAVIES’ 17 YEARS OF SUFFERING IN THAILAND’S PRISONS (2008); COLIN MARTIN, WELCOME TO HELL: ONE MAN’S FIGHT FOR LIFE INSIDE THE BANGKOK HILTON (2005); WARREN FELLOWS, THE DAMAGE DONE: TWELVE YEARS OF HELL IN A BANGKOK PRISON (1999). 3 Department of Corrections, Ministry of Justice, Thailand, Statistics (May 31, 2002), available at http://www.correct.go.th/statis.htm. 1 There were credible reports that guards physically abused detainees in some detention centers. Overcrowding and a lack of basic medical care continued to be serious problems.”4 Many of the prisoners in Bang Kwang, and virtually all of the facility’s foreign (non-Thai) prisoners, were arrested as part of Thailand’s “war on drugs,”5 under which former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra promised to send drug dealers and traffickers “to meet the guardian of hell.”6 Moreover, in summarizing Thai drug sentencing in its latest travel report on Thailand, the United States Department of State stated that “[p]enalties for the possession of, use of, or trafficking in illegal drugs in Thailand are severe. Convicted offenders can expect long prison sentences under harsh conditions, and often heavy fines as well. Thailand also has a death penalty for serious drug offenses, and has executed convicted traffickers.”7 Moreover, many human rights groups, news media outlets, and foreign governments have commented on the practice of systematic, extra-judicial killings as part of Thailand’s fight against drugs, with reported numbers of executed drug traffickers reported between 2,000 and 3,000.8 It is therefore 4 U.S. Dept. of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Thailand (2006). 5 This World: The Real Bangkok Hilton, supra note 1 (“There are serial killers and multiple rapists locked up [in Bang Kwang]. But most prisoners are in for drug dealing offenses.”). 6 Frederik Balfour, In Thailand, a Leader Feels the Heat, BUSINESSWEEK, Oct. 12, 2004, available at http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2004/nf20041012_9993_db087.htm. 7 U.S. Dept. of State, Country Specific Information, Thailand (Nov. 6, 2007), available at http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1040.html. 8 See United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Country Profiles, Thailand (Oct. 29, 2007), available at http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/country-profiles/asia-oceania/thailand?profile=all (“The Thai Government's 'Campaign against Drugs' in 2003 attracted adverse international attention. Although official figures record the deaths of over 2,600 people, including over 40 killed by the police, the Thai authorities claim that only a small number of these individuals were killed by the police, who were acting in self-defense, and that the remainder were killed by rival drug gangs or their own gang-leaders. Few if any of these deaths have been satisfactorily investigated.”); Amnesty International, Thailand: Extrajudicial Killing is not the Way to Suppress Drug Trafficking, (Feb. 20, 2003), available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA39/001/2003/en/dom-ASA390012003en.html (“The effect of the government's campaign against drugs trafficking has been a de facto shoot-to-kill policy of anyone believed to be involved in the drugs trade.”); Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Abuses in the War on 2 unsurprising, considering the active government campaign against drugs and harsh drug sentencing in Thailand—which commonly carry fifty years or life imprisonment, but can range from a minimum of twenty-five years to the death penalty9—that a majority of the general Thai prison population has been convicted of drug-related offenses.10 Confronted with a system and conditions so ostensibly appalling and dissimilar from the United States’ criminal justice system, our group traveled to Thailand to study a particular facet of the Thai criminal justice system: the treatment of and rights afforded to foreign (non-Thai) inmates awaiting trial or serving sentences in Thai prisons. In particular, we focused our research on the treatment and handling of detainees from Western, English-speaking countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia because of the striking disparities between the Thai criminal justice system and the systems in the inmates’ home countries.11 We were particularly interested in the severity of Thai sentencing, especially for offenses carrying comparatively short prison time, probation, or a fine in most Western nations. For example, in Thailand, even first-time offenders found with 100 grams or Drugs, available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/thailand0704/4.htm (“In the first three-month phase of the crackdown that began on February 1, 2003, the Royal Thai Police reported that some 2,275 alleged drug criminals had been killed. Most were shot with handguns.). 9 This World: The Real Bangkok Hilton supra note 1. Thailand has not executed a prisoner since 2003, although over 900 inmates remain on death row in Thailand. See Death Penalty, Department of Corrections, Ministry of Justice, Thailand, http://www.correct.go.th/eng/deathpenalty.htm. Thailand executed four prisoners in 2003 and eleven prisoners in 2002 primarily for drug related offenses. See United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Country Profiles, Thailand (Oct. 29, 2007), available at http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/country-profiles/asia-oceania/thailand?profile=all (“The Thai Government has used the death penalty as a high profile part of its fight against drugs. In 2002, there were 11 executions, mostly for drugs related offences. There were four executions in 2003 for murder and drugs related offences.”). 10 Thailand Department of Corrections: Statistics, available at http://www.correct.go.th/eng/Stat/statistic.htm#_Prison_Population_breakdown_by%20Type_1. 11 Within Thailand, the term “foreign prisoner” is more commonly understood to refer to the thousands of Burmese, Lao, Cambodian, and Vietnamese prisoners incarcerated in Thai jails. While the plight of these prisoners and both their home government and Thai government response would be a fascinating topic of study, we contained our research to prisoners of Western origin. 3 more of heroin can be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.12 However, the maximum punishment for a first-time offender caught with 100 grams of heroin under the United States’ Federal Sentencing Guidelines is seventy-eight months (six and one-half years).13 To receive the minimum Thai sentence of twenty-five years for heroin trafficking, a first- time offender convicted on American soil would need to be caught with more than thirty kilograms of the drug.14 Moreover, it is not uncommon for accused prisoners in Thailand to spend several months, and in some cases years, in the general Thai prison population surrounded by the country’s most violent offenders, waiting to be brought to trial. This juxtaposition of seemingly minor offenses with a sluggish legal system prone to assigning lengthy jail sentences presents a fascinating research topic, not only for American law students, but also for anyone with more than a passing interest in prisoners’ basic human rights. By traveling to Thailand our group sought first-hand insight on numerous topics including: Thai prisons and reported prison conditions, the adequacy of legal counsel for Western prisoners, the role of outside sources of prisoner support (embassies, activists, NGOs, friends), and the prison life of a non-Thai inmate. Through our research, we attempted to confirm or refute the depictions of the Thai criminal justice system that are presented by entertainment and journalistic media, by foreign governments (such as the 12 Mark Baker, Life or Death Verdict Looms for Heroin Convict, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/06/1054700391521.html (“Under Thai law, offenders caught with more than 20 grams of heroin are treated as traffickers and face up to life imprisonment, while the threshold for the mandatory death penalty is 100 grams. But if a conspiracy to export drugs is established, the total seized is judged to be the amount handled by each offender.”).

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