I thought you had to die to go to hellbut hell is right here this is bangkwang Central Prison also called Bangkok Hilton the place where only the longestsentence servers go the women's version is no picnic either there's already too much fuss on International forums about how ruthlessThai prisons are because of the constant overcrowding disease, lack of clean food and water immense heat,occasional violence and death and other challenges but the worst of them all is this one so if you're an inmate here you're here fora long time usually 20 to 50 years there's no chance that you can survive in the Bangkok Hilton prison.let's start with the fact that it's a Maximum Security Prison,it was made by King Rama VII in 1931 for detaining Dangerous long-term and death row inmates and currently it is the only establishment in Thailand responsible for the execution of the death penalty by lethal injection.Bang clang Central Prison holds death penalty inmates in the death row unit and almost all the prisoners spend much of their time in prison in Lake shackles even when they are behind bars however in 2013 the Department of Corrections launched a pilot project to remove the leg shackles from about 560 death row and life sentence inmates to improve its record on prisoner rights there was a whole ceremony presided over by prime minister yingluk Shinawatra on May 12,2013 to unchain the inmates coming to its structure, it is approximately 79 acres and divided into two zones the area inside the prison walls is about 39 acres and the spaceoutside is nearly 40 acres,the prison has two layers of walls andabout 21 watchtowerseach inmate is surrounded by six meterlong external walls and these wallsextend one meter below ground and areequipped with high voltage electricitythe second layer of the walls is of thesame height and is surrounded by barbedwire fencesat the center of the prison is thestand-alone guard Tower which gives theguard a complete surrounding view of theprisoninside the facility are 14 prison unitsseparated by internal Prison Walls and small Gates each unit is made up of a two-story dormitory building in eachunit looking at the administration we see 307 officers working at banglang Central Prison according to the latest report.
from June 2014. the prison's majority population is convicted prisoners who are serving a minimum of 15 years andthe rest are remanded prisoners whoseappeals are pending other than that there are 6 000 inmates as of 2018.let's not forget that capital punishment in Thailand is still legal in this prison all the executions take place at prison unit number 11 also called the execution unit as a gruesome touch there's a painted sign stating that the place for freeing from sufferingin the early days the execution wasbeheading by the sword but that changed to the firing squad
By reports there are 319 inmates who have been executed by the firing squad 316 men and three women offenders then they moved from firing squad to lethal injection and they've done sixexecutions as of 2009.
you can expect prisoners to go insane here which is why there have been previous attempts of escape and riots in bang clang's Central prison's history there have been four notable attempts in 1932 1961 1988 and 1998 and also two major riots in 1974 and 1985. both riots took place for the same reason protesting the Royal pardon in 1974 the prisoners rioted for seven days against the government's negligence and not submitting to his majesty the king the recommendation for granting the Royal pardon,in the riot of 1985 there were seven deaths among prisoners and many casualties according to the Departmentof Corrections report the inmates evendestroyed parts of the prison and set the workshop building on fire the most fascinating aspect of the prison lifestyle was its internal classsystem also called the chit system according to this system prisoners gettheir food according to their standing in the Cantina where only a bowl of rice and vegetable food was given freely so if you want anything other than the usual you have to buy it that allowed wealthier prisoners to employ cohorts and servants out of prisoners who worked for them in exchange for more food of course many foreign forced prisoners experienced this and established their own charity drives just to provide them with enough money for better food and speaking of foreign prisoners this prison houses many of them they later shared stories about their challenges like cramped cells no mattresses or toilet facilities language barriers and many other challenges let's now dive into some of these stories to get a closer and morepersonal look inside the Bangkok Hilton
“I was shaking and sobbingI was thinking I want my mom the worst was the beatings”Judith Payne was a dental nurse of age21 who served time in the Bangkok Hilton
for a crime she did not commit the guy she was staying with had purchased drugs from a street vendor and when the police came knocking down the door she was arrested as well that night Payne spent her time fighting off prisoners in the holding cell who tried to steal her diamond earrings the police allowed her to email her mother Valerie while doing so she was quote shaking and sobbing end quote she shared that quote all I could think of was how worried she was going to be when she read it but I still thought I'd get out in an hour or so end the next day the two were taken to court and the whole trial took place in the Thai language so they didn't understand a thing.Judith was forced to strip in front of 30 other prisoners and was intimately searched and handed a brown prison sarong to where when she was sent back to the cell she shared that quote 74 women in a narrow brick and iron-bard room stared at her the stupefying heat Buzz of flies and stench from the communal latrine almost made her faint end quote she had no briefing about how the routine worked and how to get food or water she shared that quote in the morning everyone raced to this trough and tried to throw a bit of water over themselves but everyone was pushing and shoving and
you were lucky to get any end quoteafter three weeks of experiencing Madness the families had hired a lawyer and the pair was released on bail of 5000 pounds eachFreedom put me in a dilemma
N my soul was still locked behind those bars.finally we have the story of the 26 year old political science graduate frontip man Kong she had staged a satirical play about a fictional Kingdom with the political theater coup which the military government believed was insulting Thailand's monarchy which is a very serious crime she pled guilty and was sentenced to two and a half years at bangkok's Central Women's Correctional Institution speaking to the Christian Science monitor she revealed that she slept with 70 to 80 women mostly drug offenders on the linoleum floor of her cell her sleeping space was just over a foot wide and for bedding she had three sack cloths one for a pillow one for a blanket and one to cover the floor in the daytime they ate a rushed breakfast of rice vegetables and some tough chicken which she described as animal food after that they worked in sewing factories earning as little as eight Bots a day they were punished if they didn't meet their production quotas she secretly journaled this entire experience by stealing and writing on pages of Genesis that she tore from a Bible she found ways to smuggle them out and later used the experience as research which fueled her book about Thai prisons called all they could do to us courage and dark times from a fighter not a victim after her release she became a freedom fighter for the many women inmates that still rot in Thailand prisons
she shared “ Freedom put me in a dilemma I wanted to go back my soul was still locked behind those bars the psychiatrist I consulted suggested I search for my family members my fellow inmates end’ bang Quang Central Prison is still operating and working to bring down Thailand's biggest drug traffickers despite International unrest and local protests the ruthlessness of the prison continues to affect its prisoners granted they got rid of the shackles but they've still got a long way to go tocross the line from surviving in this prison to serving in this prison
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