Nakhon Si jail faces staff, drugs crisis
Nakhon Si Thammarat Prison, where repeated searches keep finding mobile phones and drugs, is now facing a severe staff shortage after three more guards were suspended and 11 transferred.
Those 11 transferred are still subject to further investigation, prison warden Suraphol Kaewparadai said yesterday.
The disciplinary actions follow the Corrections Department’s reform of management of its penal facilities, including a series of prison searches that succeeded in turning up major hauls in two operations in April.
Activities by drugdealing inmates and their syndicates outside the prison wall were continuing with attempts to smuggle in mobile phones and other contraband items through various methods, including launches by airpressured tubes and airlifts.
On Saturday, 26 remotecontrolled toy helicopters were intercepted and seized and 17 more units yesterday, along with a quantity of ice flakes.
The prison has lost 29 guards to suspensions or transfers, including the latest 14, while the inmate population has soared to 4,900 – with a net increase of 100 a month since the crackdown began in April, he added.
