The Corrections Department is now allowing most of its prisons to offer a new service in which inmates are permitted to communicate with their visitors via the Line application, an alternative to the face-to-face visit.
Pol Col Naras Savestanan, director-general of the department, said on Tuesday 111 of the 143 prisons nationwide now have this service for inmates, and many relatives appear to like it because they no longer have to travel all the way to the prisons for a visit. "They like the service because it helps them save time and money which they used to spend to pay for their visits to the prisons,'' he said.
Another service the department recently added for inmates and their relatives is the ability to send money to inmates via an e-banking service, he said. Three months after the launch of the service, about 2 million baht has been deposited, he said, adding the department now expects to expand the service to cover 21 more prisons this year.
Meanwhile, former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom earlier this month returned to prison to continue serving his sentence after undergoing treatment for a herniated disk at Police General Hospital. He was admitted to the hospital on Dec 20 last year for treatment, which included an operation, said Pol Col Naras.
Before he was taken back to prison, the department had sent a letter to the hospital asking if Boonsong was physically fit enough to return, and emphasised that the department doesn't have any policies allowing sick inmates to spend long periods of time recovering from an illness outside prison, said Pol Col Naras.
The hospital therefore let the Department of Corrections take Boonsong back to prison, where he is still recovering, said Pol Col Naras. Boonsong was sentenced to 42 years behind bars after he and 16 others were found guilty of facilitating bogus government to government (G2G) rice deals in August, 2017.
