Abstract
Thailand places a high priority on the gender-specific contexts out of which offending arises and the differential needs of women in the criminal justice system. Despite this, Thailand has the highest female incarceration rate in South East Asia and there has been substantial growth since the 1990s. This increase has been driven by punitive changes in drug law, criminal justice policy/practice which have disproportionately impacted women. As female representation in Thailand’s prisons grows, so does the number of women who return to communities. Thus, one of the challenges facing Thai society is the efficacious re-integration of growing numbers of formally incarcerated women. However, what is known about re-entry comes almost exclusively from studies of prisoners (usually men) returning home in western societies. Re-integration does not occur in a vacuum. Supporting women post-release necessitates knowledge of their pathways to, experiences of, and journeys out of prison. Utilising in-depth interviews with (n = 80) imprisoned/formally incarcerated women and focus groups with (n = 16) correctional staff, this paper reports findings from the first comprehensive study of women’s re-integration expectations and experiences in Thailand. Findings showed that women had multifaceted and intersectional needs which directed their pathways into, during, and out of prison.
Highlights
Thailand imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in South East Asia
Utilising the voices of criminalised women and those who support them during imprisonment, this study identifies the expectations and experiences of imprisoned/formally imprisoned women re-entering the community in Thailand
Most women returning to society from prison in Thailand will have been incarcerated for a drug offence
Summary
Thailand imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in South East Asia. It has the highest female incarceration rate in the region, and prisoner numbers have grown rapidly since the1990s. Thailand imprisons more of its citizens than any other country in South East Asia. It has the highest female incarceration rate in the region, and prisoner numbers have grown rapidly since the. The government of Thailand has taken, and continues to take, a punitive approach to illicit drugs ( methamphetamine). This has caused prison populations to escalate. Drug offenders constitute a higher proportion of the female prison population (Jeffries 2014; Jeffries and Chuenurah 2016). 96) study of imprisonment trends in Thailand from 2003 to 2013 found that drug offending was the most substantial driver behind prison population changes, and “in every year drug offenders constituted the largest proportion of sentenced prisoners regardless of sex.
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