A Visit To Bangkok’s Death Row

It’s not your average excursion in Bangkok, I must confess. A visit to Bangkok’s death row. But do you have a spare few hours once in a while? Are you sometimes bored? Endlessly pondering about life’s whethers and ifs?

There is a lot of meaning out there in the world. Sometimes life’s meanings are so obvious, you do not see the wood for the trees. Sometimes meanings have to literally be conquered. By overcoming your own inner self: By doing something for somebody else you thought you could never do.

Which is the case when you pay a visit to an inmate at Bangkok’s high-security Central Prison Bang Kwang, site of Thailand’s death row.

Not that you want to indulge in the sick pleasure of voyeurism. But do good deed. Make merit. Tamboon. Visit an inmate. They’re longing for visitors. Bang Kwang has death row inmates from all over the world. You will find a compatriot. And a friend for as long as life goes.

Let’s stay realistic. Chances are rather very low, that a death verdict in Thailand is actually carried out. Nevertheless the real torture of the death verdict are the days and years before the final minute.

And bear in mind: I follow some cases. At least one seems to be innocently convicted to death. He’s fighting his case – as far as such a case can be fought in Thailand.

Entering Bang Kwang is as simple as checking-in at an airport. All you have to present is your passport. All you have to know is the name of the person you want to visit. All you have to do is filling out a simple form.

Be there around noon. People are helpful. When the stamped papers are ready, everybody crosses the road and enters Bang Kwang.

Bring along some food, such as fruits, chocolate, dried meat. All will be screened when you enter the prison gates. Deposit your purse and mobile phone in the locker. The food will be given to the prisoner right after you left.

Once inside you’ll see plants and grass. You think: “Not too bad!” But that’s just about the very outside of the huge prison complex. “There is just concrete inside,” an inmate once told me. “Not a single leaf or plant.”

You will meet your inmate behind iron and bulletproof glass. You talk with him through a telephone. Each time I was there the atmosphere was rather relaxed. Inmates laugh and talk and joke – seemingly being used to the many hardships inside after being cut off from the world for many years.

Last time I met the former senator in there again. He was the only inmate not wearing the blueish prison uniform, but a yellow shirt in honor of the King. Nope, said my inmate, that senator does not receive any special treatment.

You can stay for an easy half an hour. When the guards show up, some inmates jokingly ask for the leniency of some more minutes. The guards usually give in. Because the visitor area, with the plants and small trees in the center, is still the nice outside world. About the world the inmates re-enter after your visit the outside world has no idea.

Yes, there are detailed Google Earth images. And yes, there are inmate accounts. See for yourself what Bang Kwang does to the human being.

Find information about foreign prisoner support at Save A Life or Bangkwang. Do a simple Google search or call your embassy, whom you could visit. But be aware, the visit days of the different buildings constantly change. Usually an inmate can receive two visits a week.

And be assured, your next visit will be truly yearned for.

If you still have time, you may meet Thailand’s retired chief executioner Chavoret Jaruboon, who wrote a book about his trade: The Last Executioner – published by Maverick House.

Once in a while he shows up at his old place of work. Just ask in the building on the right of the main gate.

But don’t ask Chavoret about his trade. He will willingly tell you everything you never wanted to know. With that smile, as if it where another favorite pastime.




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October 12, 2007 | Filed Under Being Farang, Just Do It! 

Comments

5 Responses to “A Visit To Bangkok’s Death Row”

  1. Thaistory on October 29th, 2007 6.39 pm

    I’ve also just visited a woman (from my country) in Klong Prem prison who is serving time for drug trafficking. She was very confident that she will receive a pardon this December!

  2. Drug War: A Bangkok Execution In 1977 : absolutely Bangkok.com on March 3rd, 2008 9.54 am

    [...] You may also want to read our A Visit To Bangkok’s Death Row and The New Drug War & The Real Bangkok [...]

  3. Thailand Executes Drug Traffickers on August 24th, 2009 11.22 pm

    [...] on death row received lethal injections on the evening of August 24th, at Bangkok’s Bang Kwang high security [...]

  4. Melissa on September 29th, 2009 6.19 pm

    Hi,

    I teach a bunch of grade 12 students at an international school in Bangkok. We spend a portion of the year studying about ethics and one of the topics this year is the death penalty. I have read Mr. Chavoret Jaruboon’s book and know that he does guest lectures from time to time. I’m wondering how I can contact him, other than just showing up randomly at the prison itself?

  5. BangkokDan on September 30th, 2009 11.43 am

    Best is to pay the office at the right side of the main entrance a visit Melissa.

    I’m sure they know his whereabouts.

    BangkokDan

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