The Justice Ministry has ordered the overhaul of the family-visitation system at 143 prisons across the country to get rid of bad-mannered officials and price-gouging shops.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya recently asked the Corrections Department to revamp the system and related family services as he views the department as a state agency duty-bound to serve the public, department chief Witthaya Suriyawong, said on Wednesday.
The 143 prisons house about 300,000 inmates and an estimated 1 million people visit their incarcerated relatives each day.
The overhaul follows complaints by relatives about poor service and unfriendly guards and prison officials, Thai media reported today.
Under the revamp, the number of toilets, visit rooms and parking areas would be increased to accommodate a larger number of visitors. Prison services would also be improved in line with the justice minister's policy to treat people equally and correct a negative image of prison staffers, said the department's director-general.
''What relatives are facing are rude manners by prison officials, overpriced goods at prison shops, inadequate toilets and overcrowded visiting rooms. These problems are being tackled.
"Some relatives travelling from the provinces are forced to buy queue tickets to visit their family members in prisons as those tickets are all issued before they arrived. This opens a door to corruption among prison staffers, '' said Mr Witthaya.
In view of the problems, the department would introduce a computerised queue system to issue tickets to relatives wanting to visit their family members or buy goods at shops inside prison compounds.
To solve overcharging, all shops must display prices and their goods must not be sold for more than at non-prison markets, he said.