Thailand invites tourists to see life on the inside at its jails, but will inmates human rights be safeguarded, observers ask

Tourists are to be invited into Thailand’s prisons to see inmates’ art, sporting prowess and cooking skills. It will help rehabilitate them, minister says

Critics, though, question whether prisoners’ rights are being respected, and say reforming the prison system should come first

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A cell at Khao Bin prison in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Half the country’s prisons are being opened up to tourists, but this has prompted concerns about inmates’ human rights. Photo: Bangkok Post/Tawatchai Kemgumnerd

Published: 8:45pm, 28 Aug 2020Updated: 8:45pm, 28 Aug 2020

Thailand plans to turn about half its prisons into tourist attractions, to boost visitor numbers as the Southeast Asian nation struggles to recover from an economic slump caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Tourists would be invited to view sporting events, art exhibitions, cooking contests and souvenirs made by inmates in 72 of the country’s 143 prisons, Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said this week.

A pilot scheme was being tested in five prisons, including those in the cities of Trat, Rayong and Ratchaburi, he said. This would not only bring much-needed visitors, but also prepare inmates for a “normal life in society” and change the image of prisons from being “a twilight world to a world of opportunities”.

The concept of prison tourism is not new. From tours of Alcatraz in San Francisco, to the notorious Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi, which is now a museum, prisons are major attractions worldwide. Before the coronavirus postponed plans, New Delhi’s Tihar Jail was planning on opening cells to tourists, to give them a taste of life behind bars in India.

Some defunct prisons have even been converted into luxury hotels – the Four Seasons Sultanahmet, in Istanbul, Turkey, for example – while a women’s jail in Colombia has a restaurant run by inmates and a Singapore prison hosts an annual charitable run.

The Four Seasons Sultanahmet, a hotel in a former prison.

But Debbie Stothard, founder of Altsean, a human rights network, said luring tourists to operating prisons without addressing fundamental concerns about Thailand’s penal system, including overcrowding and the large number of women inmates, was “not acceptable”.

“It’s a good idea if it’s meant to give prisoners more skills and help them integrate into society,” said Stothard. “But it has to be part of a broader rights-based approach to reform the system.”