A new combined technology given the label "MIXCIR" has been proposed for use in coping with the problem of drugs and mobile phones being smuggled into prisons and to control detainees.
The proposal was made to the Corrections Department by Ukrit Mongkolnavin, chairman of the Independent Committee for Promotion of the Rule of Law.
Mr Ukrit said MIXCIR could be introduced at all 140 prisons throughout the country.
It combines use of metal detectors (M) to detect metals, including mobile phones; ion mobility spectrometry (I) to scan for drugs in prisons instead of using officials for a search; X-ray machines (X) to detect drugs which may be hidden inside someone's body, food or packagings; closed-circuit television cameras (C) to detect suspicious movement around prisons; intercept technology (I) to neutralise telephone signals, instead of using jammers; and a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system instead of shackles, of could be a violation of human rights or human dignity.
Mr Ukrit said fitting offenders with an RFID system to confine their movements in an area outside a prison, would help ease the overcrowding in prisons.
However, the installation of MIXCIR technology would come at considerable cost and speccially trained personnel would be needed to run it.
The Corrections Department may have to acquire it under a hire-purchase contract, so a company in the contract takes care of the maintenance and installation, he said.