Locked away and forgotten: inside a high security jail

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Locked away and forgotten: inside a high security jail

At Khao Bin Central Prison in Ratchaburi, we expected to find incorrigible drug lords _ but met instead the poor, the disaffected and the foreign

Published: 4 Nov 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: Spectrum

At two security checkpoints visitors are frisked and scanned with metal detectors. No sharp objects, no liquids, no metals, no mobile phones or gadgets.

Khao Bin Central Prison’s special zone, where selected drug traffickers were moved in order to halt smuggling and cut inmates off from outside drug contacts.

As in Dante's Inferno, there are several levels of discomfort here, namely nine zones of increasing security. We proceed inwards, but the deepest rung is still under construction _ a reported 600 million baht behemoth of a building where the most notorious drug lords will be held.

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cpkinnally
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Discussion 15 : 04 Nov 2012 at 22.2615
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Try writing an article about the people who allow this to happen, then I'll call you a journalist
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Asian Hand
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Discussion 14 : 04 Nov 2012 at 20.5014
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D12: right on!
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heartie
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Discussion 13 : 04 Nov 2012 at 17.0513
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Well, they are still better off than the victims of extra judicial killings. Talk to Cambodians, Burmese, Lao and many Thais about it. You'll get an ear full so bad you'll be feeling it for decades! I should write a book, or so I'm told. The devil is having a field day in Thailand!
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bkk-farang
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Discussion 12 : 04 Nov 2012 at 10.4312
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I hope the next article is about the rich and influential who get away with everything. How about some updates about the killer with the Mercedes near Sukhumvit Soi 26, or the Porsche driver with half a body in his car, the recent killer with his Ferrari or the cop killer who was not really the killer because his driver did it. We all know that the poor easily end up in prison and I don’t think there is anything we can do about it. But if we expose more of the criminal rich and at least some of them would end up in jail then maybe the whole jail system could be looked at.
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bonzo
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Discussion 11 : 04 Nov 2012 at 10.0011
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Phone signal around the area is unreliable, suppressed by advanced signal dampers within the prison _ the first official signal jamming system of its kind in the country.

Note: The equivalent unofficial signal-loss system is called DTAC, and is nationwide.
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kena
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Discussion 10 : 04 Nov 2012 at 09.3510
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That's where Thaksin will get sent, isn't it? ha ha ha. Seriously though, Thai laws are not equitably administered. Many laws and punishments are unfair. It's a very stratified society. Needs fixing.
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YogiOne
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Discussion 9 : 04 Nov 2012 at 08.559
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Dis 7, reading between the lines, you are unfortunately totally correct !
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mrsdonesh
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Discussion 8 : 04 Nov 2012 at 08.258
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Literally every legal system is based on how much money you have to defend or prosecute. Some courts are stranger then others. Thailand severely punishes drug runners yet does nothing to doctors that administer medication that harm a fetus even when the medication says "don't give to pregnant women". Drug runners poor, Doctors rich. Its basic maths. Sad but true. Of course, according to most of these guys they got caught the 1st time they did it ------ NOT!!!!!
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coolit
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Discussion 7 : 04 Nov 2012 at 08.027
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In the United States, these people will be given citizenship, paid welfare while they stay at home and do not need to work, get the right to vote and can demonstrate in mass rallies to get their anything they want and half the country supports them, they can even become the President.
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siamitude
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Discussion 6 : 04 Nov 2012 at 07.576
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If fair justice shows a country's level of development, then Thailand really belongs to the third world. A real shame for our society...
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