To discourage growing homosexuality in prisons, the Thai Corrections Department will allow male and female inmates to mix with each other, officials said Friday.
No physical contact will be allowed, and the mixing of sexes will be for limited periods during vocational training under close watch, they said.
In an initial experiment next month, 922 female inmates in a prison in the northern Nakhon Sawan province are to be allowed into a men’s zone where they will work together on vocational activities, said Nathee Chitsawang, deputy director general of the Corrections Department.
”The activity will be closely monitored by wardens. After the activity they will escorted back to their respective zones,” Nathee said.
If the experiment is successful, it will be expanded to other prisons nationwide, but there are no plans to house men and women together in prisons, he said.
He said officials have gathered anecdotal evidence that homosexuality has become a major problem among the 250 000 inmates, including 50 000 women, in the country’s 312 prisons. No statistical data has been collated, but the problem is believed to be huge and growing, he said.
”A study showed that after long confinement with the same sex the inmates look at their fellow prisoners as more beautiful than people of the opposite sex,” Nathee said.
”Male prisoners don’t dare to look in the eyes of females when they come across each other,” Nathee said. ”This behavior has created the problem of homosexuality and we hope that mixing the sexes would help lessen the problem,” Nathee said. Thai officials say that homosexuality is causing more tensions in the country’s notoriously overcrowded prisons, designed to hold just 100 000.
The overcrowding, caused by an increasing number of drug convictions, has been blamed for frequent fights and riots. In an effort to ease tensions, officials started a meditation course for inmates earlier this year. Officials also encouraged inmates to form music bands and held soccer matches during the World Cup. – Sapa-AP