Throughout Thai history, various methods of restraint have been used for prisoners, ranging from full-body stocks to handcuffs. Chilling accounts of gagging with coconuts, confinement in a rattan ball for an elephant to kick and the like are passed down and embellished, fuelling wild urban legends about horrific torture. To be sure, many methods and devices are recognised as actually having been used and are even on display in the Bangkok Prison Museum. Today, electronic monitoring devices (also known as “tagging”) have joined the litany of constraint devices in the Thai justice system.
An amendment to Article 89/2(3) of the Criminal Procedures Code was promulgated on 12 September 2007, and entered into effect on 12 October 2007. This amendment specifically allowed for non-custodial and alternative methods to incarceration based on the court’s discretion and Ministerial Regulations. Thailand began a pilot programme of using electrically monitored leg cuffs in 2013. 200 devices were deployed only in the Bangkok metropolis. They were found useful for detention, restriction and surveillance purposes. So far, the devices have been used largely with juvenile offenders. Currently, 3,000 units are in use in 23 provinces.
Electronic monitoring is an option in both the pre-trial and trial and sentencing stages. Effects on the perpetrator as well as the victim and risk to society at large are considered before putting an electrical monitoring device into use in each specific case. The provisions of Article 89/2 do not apply in the cases of crimes related to national security, terrorism, and certain crimes for which the court has issued a sentence of no less than 10 years.
The recent adoption of these devices reflects changes in penology theory and more open attitudes to non-custodial measures. In a practical sense, it is hoped that this alternative to prison confinement will ease prison overcrowding and ideally so that defendants awaiting trial can work to support themselves and their families. Psychologically, spending a long period of time awaiting trial is damaging to both morale and physical health.
On 26 January 2015, the Department of Probation announced that they are ready to extend usage of electronic monitors nationwide. Hopefully, the social benefits as well as the practicality of tagging will continue to be recognised and put to use within the Thai legal system.
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