Guard fingered in prison sex scandal

A file shot of an inmate. Officials have disclosed a scandal in which a prison guard allowed male inmates to have sex with female prisoners in Lop Buri.

The Department of Corrections has admitted for the first time that one of its female prison guards has been sacked and is facing criminal or disciplinary punishment for allegedly making money by allowing male inmates to have sex with women inmates behind bars.

The incident happened at the Chai Badan district prison in Lop Buri in November last year.

The female guard is among 14 prison officers nationwide who have been fired by the department this year.

The other officers sacked were involved in offences which included turning a blind eye to the smuggling of mobile phones and drugs into prisons and demanding bribes from families in exchange for permitting alcohol to be brought in for inmates.

Referring to the sacked female guard at the Chai Badan district prison, department director-general Naras Savestanan said the woman was found to have had financial trouble although it surprised the department that she resorted to this method to make money.

Fellow prison officers suspected she was up to something and checked records of CCTV footage, which became the key evidence.

"The case happened in November last year. It is not known whether she had done this before," Pol Col Naras said.

"But I must say this was the first case where a female prison guard was responsible for arranging male inmates to have sex with female inmates in the women's quarters for money."

Despite claims by the guard that the male and female inmates were partners in civilian life, the practice was still unsound since it violates prison laws, he said.

According to Pol Col Naras, the guard was found to have demanded 8,000 baht each from three male inmates for sex in the female detention facility's toilets with three inmates.

"This prison guard saw the male inmates off to the women's cells herself," Pol Col Naras said.

Of 143 prisons nationwide, only eight have an all-female inmate population. They are the Central Women's Correctional Institution, Chon Buri Women's Correctional Institution, Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Institution, Thon Buri Women's Correctional Institution, Nakhon Ratchasima Women's Correctional Institution, Phitsanulok Women's Correctional Institution, Songkhla Women's Correctional Institution, and the Women's Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts.

The remaining facilities have both male and female inmates but they are kept in separate zones.

Male inmates can sometimes enter the female zones for certain assignments, such as changing light bulbs or repairing items, but they must be accompanied by male guards, according to Pol Col Naras.

He conceded that some male inmates engage in homosexual acts while serving their time.

"In prison, prisoners may see this as a normal issue. Some even get married inside jail and celebrations are held for them," Pol Col Naras said.

"There have been instances where prison officers were bribed to bring alcohol inside for the celebration.

"When they [male inmates] are in prison, some can become the 'wives' of other men. This is different from the outside world. They must live their lives behind bars for the long haul."

Over the past couple of years, human rights advocacy groups based in Thailand and outside of the country have urged the department to set aside detention facilities specifically for transsexuals.

However, there are not so many transsexual inmates that the department needs separate facilities for this group, according to a department source.

Based on the department's 2016 database, about 4,000 inmates are transsexual, or a little more than 1% of the 300,000 prisoners across the country.

According to the source, the department cannot afford to build facilities specifically for transsexuals due to the budget constraints.

These inmates do not want to be locked up elsewhere anyway, the source said.

"These inmates tend to want to have partners," the source said.

"The pretty ones would be flirted with by a lot of men.

"In prison, when one retires to their sleeping quarters for the night, no one bothers them, even the officers or prison guards."