Gale is a British lady in her early sixties who moved to Thailand with her husband and children in 1997 when his company posted him in Bangkok. Initially, she became involved in helping out at a rural school, which her husband’s company sponsored. Although the Thai school was in the middle of nowhere, it was relatively clean and well equipped with basic facilities and equipment. The pupils, however, came from impoverished households and had neither proper shoes nor uniforms, she says. Gale was touched by the children’s enthusiasm.
She said: ‘I had tears in my eyes, seeing how happy the kids were to see us and how appreciative they seemed to be to receive small gifts we had prepared for them. Each of them received a goody bag of crisps, a book and a pencil. Afterwards, they were in for a treat of ice-cream as well. Back in the UK, had I given a child the same gift bag they would probably have said, “Is that all?” It was very humbling to see these children appreciate the little kindness so much. I’ve been to many schools since then to make donations, do activities with the students or host parties for them.’
Through a network of friends at the British Women’s Group in Bangkok and the British Community in Thailand Foundation for the Needy, Gale started to participate in other volunteer work, including spring cleaning at the Aids hospice in the slum of Klong Toey. Later another British woman who had been visiting prisoners on death row at the Bangkok Hilton asked Gale and her friend Katherine Biggs to accompany her to the prison. She was about to leave Thailand and wanted someone to carry on this duty. Gale agreed immediately. Her first visit proved an eye-opener.
She said: ‘We visited three inmates, two of whom were on death row. The men came to see us with shackles on their ankles. It was very daunting to see them in that state as I had never seen anybody being treated like that before. We didn’t ask too much but obviously were interested in how they had ended up in a place like this. They were all in there for drug offences.
‘We left the prison feeling quite emotional. Katherine turned to me and said, “We’ll have to come here again, won’t we?” I said yes and I’ve come here for four years now. My attitude is that, no matter what they are now, they are somebody’s son or brother or uncle. I can sympathise as a mother because—God forbid—if it were my son being incarcerated 6,000 miles away from home, it would mean a lot to me if there were someone on the other end to check up on his wellbeing and send me an email, telling me he is all right and that he sends his love.’
During her first visits, Gale noticed the so-called ‘banana visitors’ who go into the prison simply to satisfy their curiosity.
‘Sadly, some young tourists just want to come to Bang Kwang and gawk. They come here so they can brag about the experience later to their friends back home. Some even made promises to keep in touch with the inmates they visited but they didn’t. On the other hand, some who came as tourists ended up building long-term friendships with the inmates.
‘In general, I think these visits benefit both the tourists and the inmates. The inmates remind them of their freedom and choices they could make in their lives. Obviously, the tourists can learn from their mistakes and be warned of what could happen during their stay.’
When people approach Gale and asked her what it is like to visit the Bangkok Hilton, she invites them to see for themselves. It is not everyone’s cup of tea, however, and for some one visit is enough.
‘Mostly I pass messages between the chaps and their families. Sometimes the families give me money to get things that their sons need. Being a messenger doesn’t sound much but I live here so I can speed up the communication between them. I can send an email from a chap to his family and get a reply for him within a week. If they use letters, it could be at least three weeks in turnaround time. The families said it makes all the difference for them knowing that there is somebody who is on the outside to check that their sons or brothers are all right.
‘When I’m back in England, I visit some of the families if they don’t live too far from where I am. Other families call me while I’m there as well. They don’t phone me while I’m here because of the difference in time. We communicate mainly via email since it costs next to nothing. When the families visit Bangkok we always meet up and I take photographs of the families and send them to the chaps as well.’
Gale’s help isn’t limited to British inmates.
‘I met some Hong Kong Chinese and British nationals [overseas]. One of the British guys was friendly with a Burmese inmate. It was after Nagris [a cyclone that caused hundreds of thousands of fatalities in Burma in 2008] when he asked me to ring this Burmese chap’s brother to find out if his family was safe and I have been in contact with his brother since.
‘We chipped in to buy a wheelchair for a Hong Kong man who had no support after having a stroke. I used to send in some toiletries to the chaps, knowing they would distribute them to Thai or Cambodian inmates who don’t have any support. It is just a little gesture when we think about it in normal circumstances but a small bottle of shampoo or shower gel could make an inmate feel really clean for the first time in a long while. Our guys help those who are less fortunate than they are as well.’
In one case, a Malaysian inmate who had become a valued staff member at the hospital, got a Burmese prisoner transferred from his building to the prison hospital, with help from the prison’s chief doctor. The Burmese man had shown signs of mental illness following rapes and assaults by other inmates. Staying at the hospital meant he was out of his abusers’ reach and could receive some basic treatment. Later a church group in the prison hospital, headed by a Thai inmate, took him under its wing.
Some inmates try to help the less fortunate ones. I guess these are the few who do get some rehabilitation. Some Asian inmates form friendships with the farang (foreign) ones. They know they have a better chance of surviving in Bang Kwang if they stick to their white friends as they have contact with outsiders. So they wash their clothes and do errands for them.
I asked Gale if any inmate she visited had ever confided in her about their experiences inside the Bangkok Hilton. To my surprise, she said so far none of them had told her any horrific stories and it was unlikely that they were subjected to any abuse since they are westerners and are treated better than other nationalities such as Thai, Cambodian or Burmese.
She said: ‘From what I’ve heard from the chaps, it’s more frustration than anything else that they have to deal with. Thing such as requests for medical treatment don’t happen quickly or even at all—even after they go through the red tape. Communication with the Thai authorities sometimes gets lost in translation. Sometimes they just give up because it is too much of hassle to get even one request.’
Gale offered a rather amusing story instead.
‘A chap told me that he had been watching Psycho one night and he couldn’t sleep afterwards. I said, “Are you kidding? It was only a film but you live among murderers, rapists and the likes.” I found it funny for him to be so scared of a film but he didn’t seem to realise what a grim reality he was in. But I suppose the inmates, be they westerners or Asians, form some kind of comradeship and they forget the reason why the others are in there. He and I had a big laugh before he said, “For God’s sake, Gale, if I thought like that, I would never sleep a wink.” It is scary to think that you have to sleep next to a person who has knifed or shot someone, isn’t it?’
Given the harsh conditions inside Thai prisons, I assumed the foreign inmates would prefer to be sent back to their own countries where prison life would be more tolerable if possible. A British inmate has to serve four years in a Thai jail before he becomes eligible for transfer under the bilateral prisoner transfer agreement. The process can take about a year to complete. Transferred inmates have to serve half of the remaining Thai sentence in a British prison before they become eligible for a parole under UK law. The surprise is that some British inmates don’t want to be transferred back home, says Gale.
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br /> ‘Some chaps told me that the prisoner transfer treaty between Thailand and UK is a problem for them. I was told that prisoners from other western countries are freed much sooner than the British are after their transfers. Say a British person is given 30 years by a Thai court, he will have to serve at least four years here before he can serve half of the remaining time in a UK prison. There he will be subject to British law, which means he will be entitled to parole after serving half of his sentence or six years and six months. Altogether, he will serve at least 10 years and six months, even though he wouldn’t get such a harsh sentence for killing his own child in the UK.’
Gale’s comparison between sentences given for drug smuggling in Thailand and sentences given to the ‘baby killers’ struck a chord with me and, on further research, I read several disturbing cases of fathers killing their infants. One account etched in my mind is of Mark Howe, who was found guilty of punching or kicking his 18-month-old daughter’s stomach with such force that tore her intestines. He left her to die slowly the following day when, had he taken her to the hospital, she might have been saved. An English judge sentenced him to only five years in prison.
I am puzzled by the lenience shown these ‘baby killers’ while Gale is puzzled by the harsh sentences handed down to drug offenders in Thailand. However, Gale and I agree that it really comes down to the law of the land.
She said: ‘Had the chaps committed similar offences in the UK, they could have served just a small portion of the Thai sentence. I think the time the British offenders serve in Thailand is enough for the crime they commit. One of the guys I visited was sentenced to 26 years, when he would have probably have served only six months if judged in a British court. Plus, they suffer the extra trauma of being so far away from their families.
‘Moreover, when they go back, because they were handed high sentences by Thai courts, they are categorised as high-risk inmates and put in high-security prisons. Some of the older prisons in the UK I visited are in a pretty awful state. There is a serious shortage of guards so the inmates can be locked up in their cells for most of the day in the UK. In Bang Kwang, they are allowed some freedom to walk about, exercise, write letters and read for about eight hours a day.’
Western inmates usually are left to their own devices and they don’t have to work in factories, as do the Thai inmates, so they have more free time. The non-Asian inmates tend to write letters of complaint as well.
Not being able to choose which part of Britain they will end up in has made some reluctant to ask for a transfer, she says.
‘They can apply for a specific prison but there is no guarantee they will get the one they want. Obviously they prefer the prisons where their families and friends could visit them often. Given where the treaty stands now, some of them prefer to stay here despite the harsh living conditions.
‘Here they are more or less left on their own. They are unlikely to be the subject of assault or to be victimised by the guards or the other inmates. I think they are in a better position here compared to at home where they would be treated as ordinary inmates. The weather is also a big factor. The weather in the UK is freezing cold compared to the warm weather in Thailand.
‘Of course, not all the British inmates feel this way about the treaty. I went to see one chap who had been transferred back to a fairly new prison. The place was modern, clean and private-run. Some of the guys had done a spell in UK prisons before and they knew what it was like to be locked up in a high security prison. Being transferred back to the UK is not the best option for some of them though.’
Most prisoners accept the punishment they are handed out, she says. ‘I’m sure they knew the law but they took a terrible risk, thinking they could get away with it. While I think the penalty for drug offenders here is too high, I understand it is the law of the land and I respect that. Foreigners are guests here, therefore we should follow the law of the land.
‘If you choose to live in a foreign country, you should be respectful to the hosts and their culture. It bothers me whenever another foreigner complains and moans about Thailand. If they don’t like Thailand, then they should go and live somewhere else. If you want to live here, you have to embrace Thailand entirely. I love how Thai people generally treat me with respect.’
Another veteran foreign inmate visitor told me there are other reasons why some convicts don’t want to be transferred back to their countries. Some had been long-term expatriates in Thailand living with Thai wives and children before they were incarcerated, so being sent back would mean uprooting the lives they have created here.
Some Africans don’t want to be sent back to their own countries simply because the prison conditions there are even worse. I have heard that some inmates regard Bang Kwang literally as the Bangkok Hilton.
The other factor, which is often overlooked, is race. In general, Caucasian foreigners are treated better in Thailand and they are given certain protection because the guards just let them be. If they go back to their own countries, they would be treated as ordinary inmates.
From talking to several farang volunteers, what seems to be a source of frustration for them is that the regulations on visiting are changed from time to time. Each director is different in terms of opening the prison to the outsiders. I’ve worked with one who invited comedians inside to entertain the inmates and another who didn’t even want anyone to take photos or videos of the prison from the outside.
Although they may differ in approach, all they want is that the prison runs smoothly during their tenure. The authorities make more rules as they go along because the inmates find new and clever ways to break the rules. At the time of interview, Gale told me no parcels were allowed to be sent inside because a mobile phone SIM card had been found hidden inside a pizza. This meant she could not take in ‘farang food’ such as tins of tuna or corned beef.
Sometimes Gale is told to change seats by prison guards a few times without giving her a reason before she can sit and talk. When she finally sits down, she finds that the phone doesn’t work and has to find another seat. Despite these little sources of frustration, she says the prison staff treat her group well in general and the inmates haven’t complained too much.
‘Thailand allows me to be more charitable. I can just go out and help people. You cannot do this in some developed countries due to red tape. Overall, it has been a humbling experience for me. I don’t volunteer to have people say I’m wonderful. I do it because I enjoy it and want to do it. And I also believe what goes round comes round. My father, who was a prisoner of war and an undertaker, told me the greatest gift you can give to someone is your time and I guess I heed his words.
‘When I get email from one of the chaps’ families in the morning, I’ll print it out to tell the chap he’s got a message from his family, reminding him that he has not been forgotten. It feels great being the bearer of good news and being in a position to help others. I think you can get much, if not more, from giving than receiving, seeing happy faces of those you’ve helped. I’m sure a lot of people would feel the same.’
Given that the authorities discover drugs hidden in incoming parcels for the inmates from time to time, the guards can’t be too sure about the motives of all the visitors. Officials at the Bangkok Hilton are on the lookout for any visitors who may be involved in the drug trade or illicit dealings—be they individuals or faith-based groups. Crackdowns on drug rings on the outside are sometimes linked to the drug trade inside the prisons.
Cynicism is prevalent. One charity group, which is staffed by Thais and Asians, is said to be running a money-making scheme. First, they tend to spend more time with rich inmates. Allegedly, the staff compile lists of items that the prisoners want and go about finding companies that can donate these items. They then fabricate receipts to show that they bought these items with donors’ money. So much for charity.
My last title at Bang Kwang was Chief
of the Foreign Affairs division and it was a great opportunity for me to meet many westerners who had committed to helping inmates of their own nationality and others. Dealing with hardened criminals and piles of documents could be tedious, so meeting them was a pleasure.
I’m glad to call some of them my friends and have welcomed them into my life. They have worked with the Thai officials to organise many projects to improve the living conditions of the inmates. These individuals are the side of the Bangkok Hilton that should be told of more.
Chapter 5
Life Inside the Bangkok Hilton
Bang Kwang is a society like no other, with its own set of rules. Its residents, the inmates, vary in terms of fortune, background and nationality, with 40 countries represented.
There are small-time drug smugglers from tribal villages in the north of Thailand, Chinese drug barons, former army generals, high-ranking ex-police officers, a once-revered monk and at least three doctors.
Within this confined world, there is a class system, just like in the outside world. If you happen to be at the lower end of the scale, you may end up to doing demeaning things to survive because there is little support available.
The long sentences mean that, at best, prisoners spend many years behind bars. At worst, they never get out. So over time the support of their loved ones often fades away and they are forgotten or abandoned. Often Thai wives ask for a divorce or simply take new husbands so that they have someone to provide for themselves and their children. Some inmates vent their anger and resentment through self-harm: cutting their fingers, starving themselves or taking drugs. A few go as far as committing suicide.
Outsiders say life in Bang Kwang is cruel and there is a lot of temptation to engage in illicit activities, so you cannot expect the inmates to change. The odds are stacked against them.
A Secret History of the Bangkok Hilton Page 5