Proposal Rejected: Live online footage to monitor Bangkok prison life

by insideprison.com May 2006

The Department of Corrections for the Ministry of Justice, Thailand, had proposed in January of 2005 that it would begin to broadcast live footage of life behind the bars of its correctional facilities, hoping to combat alleged prisoner abuse and staff corruption while increasing transparency by publicly exposing daily activities. The only exception would be inmates on death row, who could not be shown walking to the execution chamber or being executed. The Department of Corrections Website would allow access to the footage, at correct.go.th/eng/eng.htm.

However, Amnesty International was not as pleased as corrections department officials, contending that the true solution to correctional injustice and corruption is stricter security and improved staff policies, not constant surveillance. After protests that claimed such surveillance was unconstitutional and violated prisoners' human rights, the proposal was quashed that same month.

Cameras that had already been installed at Bangkwang prison, a maximum security facility outside of Bangkok that houses 6,000 inmates and 1,000 condemned to death row, would remain private, and be used only to monitor prison activities. Under the new development, only the chief of the Corrections Department, Nathee Chitsawang, can observe the prison footage (Associated Press 19 January 2005).