Govt wants to isolate drug addict prisoners

Govt wants to isolate drug addict prisoners

Proposal to stop illicit substances entering jails

The Department of Corrections is considering separating drug-case inmates suspected of keeping up their connections with the illicit drug trade outside prison from other prisoners.

The department will dedicate a zone in the Klong Pai Central Prison in Nakhon Ratchasima to detain such drug inmates, who are likely to be isolated in single cells, department director-general Suchart Wong-ananchai said.

''These type of prisoners need to be controlled with the help of technology which can film them while they are meeting warders, to prevent them from attempting to bribe the officers,'' Mr Suchart said.

The department chief's remark came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung announced a package of measures to crack down on illicit drugs in the country, including the plan to separate drug convicts from other prisoners.

Mr Suchart said the department will call a meeting with commanders of the prisons where drug-trading between inmates and outsiders has been reported, to identify inmates with drug trade connections.

These prisons include Klong Pai Central Prison (Nakhon Ratchasima), Bang Kwang Central Prison (Nonthaburi), Rayong Central Prison, Khao Bin Central Prison (Ratchaburi), Klong Prem Central Prison (Bangkok), and the Central Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts.

The department is proposing construction of a new prison to detain inmates with records of having connections with drug rings, Kobkiat Kasiwat, deputy director-general of the department said.

Before the project gets underway, such inmates might be moved to Khao Bin Central Prison. The new prison could take about two years to finish, Mr Kobkiat said.

''As news came out that they will have to move somewhere else, some of those drug inmates began filing complaints against us, saying we are violating their human rights,'' he said.

''They have a lot of money and hire good lawyers to promptly submit such complaints on their behalf.''

Mr Kobkiat said the department would have to be careful in making any decision that would affect them.

Meanwhile, one more suspect wanted in connection with last week's major drug bust in Pathum Thani has turned himself in to authorities.

Sgt Maj Weenas Srijai, who is a soldier with the Third Army's Engineer Battalion in Phitsanulok, surrendered to the Narcotics Suppression Bureau through his superviser at the Somdej Phra Boromatrailokanart military camp on Saturday evening.

He was the fourth suspect wanted by police in the billion-baht drug case in which 3.8 million speed pills and 71kg of crystal methamphetamine were seized. Three other suspects were arrested earlier last week. Sgt Maj Weenas had confessed to the drug trafficking charges, Jiraroj Keesiri, a deputy chief of the bureau said.

Meanwhile, Pathum Thani police yesterday arrested two drug suspects with 20,000 pills of methamphetamine.

Suwijak Meeduangjan and Sompis Dankrathok were arrested in Muang Ake housing estate as they were about to deliver the drugs to a client, said Pol Col Samithi Mudasanit, acting Pathum Thani police commander.

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