The buck stops at the Corrections Department. Or, in other words, stops in the lap of Sahakarn Petchnarin, the department's new director-general who assumed the hot seat last October.
His predecessor, Aryut Sinthopphan, is luckier, because he left office at the end of September last year and therefore escaped the heat which is now being directed to the Corrections Department over the controversy surrounding convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who set foot in Thailand on Aug 22 last year after more than 14 years of self-imposed exile.
Now, all accusing fingers are pointing at the department over its alleged VIP treatment showered on Thaksin since his arrival from exile to serve a eight-year term for three convictions.
Early on, his prison term was commuted to one year by a royal pardon for his good deeds to the country when he was prime minister before his ouster in a coup on Sept 19, 2006.
However, Thaksin was accorded VIP treatment from day one. Unlike other prisoners, he has not spent a night behind bars after being sent to the Bangkok Remand Prison to serve his time.
He did not have his hair cut short and nor was forced to wear a prisoner's uniform. His inmate number is 6650102668, but there are no details about his personal profile in the Ror Thor 101 prisoner's form.
Last week, the department announced Thaksin should not be addressed as Prisoner Thaksin because he has not yet served a jail term and has not been confined in a prison. Moreover, the department said addressing a prisoner by his/her name with the prefix "inmate or prisoner" is dehumanising.
But why now? And why did it take so long before the department realised that addressing prisoners as Mr Prisoner so and so amounts to a degradation of human dignity?
On the same night as Thaksin's arrival in Thailand, he was rushed to the Police General Hospital from the prison's hospital reportedly with a sudden life-threatening illness although he looked quite healthy upon his arrival at Don Mueang.
Thaksin was admitted to a ward on the 14th floor of Police General Hospital and has been there ever since. But since no outsiders had ever seen him and little was known about his condition, suspicion grew about whether he was still at the hospital or not, or already living a quiet life at home?
But questions about Thaksin's condition appear to have been overtaken by new question: "Will he be given a parole before or after Feb 22?"
On Jan 17, Sitthi Sutheewong, deputy director-general of the department, said Thaksin is eligible to be granted parole given his serious illnesses and his age of above 70. However, he said the department has yet to receive a report from the warden of Bangkok Remand Prison where Thaksin is supposed to be incarcerated and that a parole committee will consider which prisoners are eligible for parole.
One condition of parole is that an inmate must have served one-third of his/her term, or at least six months. In the case of Thaksin, he will have fulfilled his six-month term on Feb 22.
However, a legal dispute may arise about the imprisonment status of the former prime minister because, in reality, he has not served even one day of his one-year jail term in prison, but at a ward on the 14th floor of Police General Hospital. Is the hospital ward, which is guarded by warders and off-limits to unauthorised individuals, regarded as a prison cell?
The final say on the issue of Thaksin's parole will rest with the director-general of the department after a recommendation from the parole committee.
It is a not an easy decision to make. He will also face unpleasant questions from the media and Thaksin's political opponents. it's an unpleasant prospect that his bosses and Pheu Thai heavyweights have chosen to avoid, putting all the onus on the department's head to sort out.
But most of us may have an answer in our minds about how the whole circus about Thaksin's affairs and his "virtual imprisonment" will unfold: that he will be the first ever prisoner in Thailand not required to spend one day behind bars and then given a parole to walk free again.
He will leave behind a legacy of double standards in the justice system and lend additional credence to the widely held notion that prison in Thailand is meant for the poor, not for the rich, particularly the super-rich.
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.