Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya has every reason to feel frustrated with the Corrections Department for its failure to stop drug trafficking from prisons and the smuggling of cellphones for use by imprisoned drug kingpins.
But what really made him lose his cool at a meeting on Monday of senior officials of all departments, including the Corrections Department, under his ministry seemed to be the surreptitious omission of several "big names" from a list of prisoners recommended for removal from Surat Thani provincial prison to a maximum-security prison in Bangkok, allied with what is assuredly the contract killing of an honest prison official at Surat Thani prison on Oct 12.
The tampering with the list of prisoners to spare influential prisoners in Surat Thani prison from being transferred to a maximum-security prison was seen as a double slap in the face of the justice minister following the brazen murder of prison official Charnchai Namchak.
Justice Minister Gen Paiboon Koomchaya (Bangkok Post photo)
During the meeting, Gen Paiboon did not mince his words when reprimanding Correction Department director-general Witthaya Suriyawong in front of dozens of senior officials. There was no kreng jai when he sternly warned Mr Witthaya that his head would roll if he could not stop the cellphone smuggling and drug trafficking from inside the prisons within six months.
Prison wardens will be the first to face the axe if they do not act to tackle the two problems, he said, setting a three-month deadline.
Gen Paiboon, a member of the junta's National Council for Peace and Order, reportedly said he wondered whether prisons were penitentiaries to rehabilitate inmates, or merely hubs of evil.
As the right-hand man of the Surat Thani prison warden, Charnchai's main job was to ensure that no illegal items such as drugs and cellphones were smuggled into the prison from the outside. In the course of his high-risk assignment he managed to identify a prison official who allegedly abetted the smuggling of illegal items into the corrections facility. Charnchai had reportedly on several ocassions intercepted drugs and phones being smuggled into the prison.
Police suspect imprisoned drug traffickers put out a contract for his elimination.
On the night of Oct 12, Charnchai left the prison in the evening to pick up his wife and children as usual. As his car stopped at a traffic light about 50 metres from a police station, two men on a big bike pulled up on the driver's side and a gunman riding pillion fired three bullets into his body. Charnchai was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The case is still being investigated and so far no arrests have been made. The audacious murder prompted an order by the justice minister for the transfer of some "influential" inmates, people suspected of arranging drug deals from inside the prison, out of Surat Thani prison to a maximum security facility elsewhere.
It is well known that prisons are a twilight zone beyond the reach of the so-called long hand of the law. They are places where money does not only talk loudest, but also plays god. That explains why an imprisoned wealthy drug trafficker can live the life of a king in prison, eat whatever food he desires and can afford a simple cellphone, which costs about 150,000 baht in prison but less than 1,000 baht on the outside.
It also explains why prison officials are so tempted to get involved in corruption and why illicit drugs such as methamphetamine are easily available in all prisons and imprisoned drug traffickers continue to get hold of new cellphones and arrange drug sales in and outside the walls even after their old ones are seized.
Cleaning up entrenched corruption in the penitentiary system is such an uphill task that it is doubtful Gen Paiboon can ever succeed, despite all his determination. At the very least, those responsible for tampering with the list of prisoners to be transferred from Surat Thani prison must be identified and dealt with accordingly. For certain, Justice Minister Paiboon’s effort deserves full public support.