March 23, 2009
Bangkok (ASTV Manager Online) – Increasing number of prisoners reflect social and economic problems, and up to 13 percent of 30,000 freed prisoners were back to jail annually.
Economic crisis inevitably caused social problems, and the number of prisoners would specially be high if the economic problem was worse.
There were totally 190,000 convicts nationwide, and the number was expected to reach 200,000 at the end of this year.
Thailand is one of the countries facing rising number of criminals, according to Nathee Jitsawang, director general of the department of corrections.
More than 30,000 prisoners were released in each year, and 13 percent of them were put in jail again.
The interesting point is that people in the society tend not to give the opportunity to the convicts no matter how well they are trained whereas they welcome alien workers from neighboring countries more.
Violence among children and youths also kept rising, according to Dr. Jitti Mongkolchaiaranya, dean of the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University.
For example, a student left his belonging in a computer room. He then decided to break into the room to get it, and later called his mother to send a repairman to fix the door.
The government was urged to support 20-30 pilot schools to produce social workers to solve youths’ violence problem.
