Hard time
Just watched a BBC documentary on Bangkwang Prison in Thailand, aka The Bangkok Hilton.
This was the first time cameras had been allowed to film inside and if anyone was thinking of transporting illegal substances out of Thailand this programme would make them think twice.
7,000 prisoners crammed in to a jail built for 3,000, 24 to a cell and confined there for fifteen hours a day having to lay like sardines on thin mats on the floor, pretty grim stuff.
All new prisoners have to wear leg irons all the time for their first three months, death row inmates have leg irons welded on permanently.
The majority of prisoners are in for drug offences and the Thais don’t hold back on handing out the death penalty or 99 year sentences.
The programme interviewed two British guys doing time, one a 20 year old from Manchester who was stopped at Bangkok airport last November bringing 3500 ecstacy pills into Thailand. They gave him 99 years to think about why he did it.
They also had a lot of Nigerians locked up there who take heroin to Europe via Lagos.
Until last year executions were done by firing a machine gun at a prisoners back, now they’ve switched to injections.
All in all a sweaty hole that you would not want to be in.
By BootsnAll | Permalink
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These guys aren’t that smart lets be honest. How about that British guy who was caught walking around Bangkok without a shirt and pants loaded with drugs.
Instead of saying he bought them on the street he goes on to boast ‘I got through 4 lines of security at the airport yesterday before this guy busts me.’
Here in Indonesia there is always a news article about a Italian, Latin American or African bringing in hard drugs.
Just yesterday there was an article mentioning how one guy got the DP.
The programme had a big effect on me. My heart went out to Michael Collins, the 20 year old serving life for carrying what I thought the narrator said was 80, but accoring to other info on the web, was 4,500 ecstasy tabs. Apparent street value £50K - where did a Tesco workder from Bury find that kind of cash? OK - he was a twat (and, whilst not the brightest spark, had a kind of dignity I thought), but 99 years? That’s obscene.
Peanuts kill more people in a year than ecstasy, so make sure you’re dry-roasted free if travelling thru Bangkok.
The Thai Government are a bunch of hypocrites. The country has been a hub for all types of criminal activity for years - including the biggest market in endangered species (I’ve seen what goes on at Chatuchak with my own eyes), yet the customary blind eye is turned.
If they are so paranoid about drugs, then why do they tolerate widespread use within the prisons themsevles. AND, whilst I’m at it, if the medieval sentences are such a deterrent, then why are their jails bursting at the seams?
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No doubt Americans would think this treatment is too harsh, but I say, if you transport drugs, even more if you head an organization intent on making drugs available, you deserve the harshest treatment possible. Of course, each case needs to be assessed individually. First offense - more lenient than a second offense, and so on.