Prisoners can opt to work on fishing boats

Prisoners can opt to work on fishing boats

Prisoners who have served most of their terms or are close to being released will be allowed to work on fishing boats to ease the problems of crowded jails and human trafficking.

Justice permanent secretary Chatchawal Suksomjit said on Saturday eligible prisoners must also be physically fit and willing to work hard.

Gen Chatchawal said he would discuss the programme's details with the chairman of the Fishing Boats Association.

The programme will help ease Thailand's human trafficking problem since there are no middlemen to take advantage of labourers.

Participation is voluntary. If a prisoner does not want to continue after working for a while, he may ask to switch jobs or work on land.

Corrections director-general Vidhya Suriyawong said he had preliminary talks with the fishing boats association's chairman who want the prisoners to replace migrant workers.

Prisoners who have served most of their terms or are close to being released will be allowed to work on fishing boats to ease the problems of crowded jails. (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)

Authorities also asked executives at industrial estates if they wanted to join the programme, which will see prisoners working during the day and return to jails at night.

The prisoners will earn incomes while being trained certain skills before their releases.

Amata Industrial estate in Chon Buri is the first to accept the offer, he said.

Prisons are overcrowded at present and Justice Minister Gen Paiboon Koomchaya wanted to designate some exclusively for drugs convicts.

Of all 320,000 prisoners in 143 jails across the country, 70% or 200,000 are locked up in drug-related cases.

A breakdown shows of all drugs prisoners, 100,000 are users or small dealers who should be separated from large dealers.

The drugs database will be used to classify the drugs prisoners since the amount of evidence is not always an accurate indicator.

Thairath Online also reported Gen Paiboon would propose to the cabinet the transfer of 48 jails close to communities to a complex in the suburbs.

He will ask the Treasury Department to mobilise 15 billion baht for the project in the same manner the department financed Government Complex on state land.

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