Row heats up over body searches
CALLS ARE growing louder for prison officials to strike a balance between strict measures and human rights after criticism of body cavity searches conducted on prisoners went viral.
The latest incident to grab the attention of traditional and social media relates to a cavity search conducted on a female student charged with violating the National Council for Peace and Order ban on political gatherings after she joined a train rally to the scandal-plagued Rajabhakti Park.
The directive on conducting searches on prisoners, enforced since 1936, stipulates that body searches must be carried out by someone of the same sex.
For females, if a woman prison official is not available another trusted woman can carry out the search.
Prison officials have taken a hardline approach to body searches following a number of incidents involving prisoners smuggling illegal drugs into prisons by swallowing them or inserting mobile phones into someone’s anus or vagina. Three phones have been inserted into an anus before.
Prison officials have said they do not want to carry out body cavity searches as they feel uncomfortable doing them and know prisoners feel the same. Many times they prefer to order prisoners to sit and stand many times in the hope that any inserted contraband will fall out.
National Human Right Commission secretary-general Chatchai Suthiklom said the Central Women’s Correctional Institution was a model for body searches as it followed clear guidelines on ordinary and special searches.
He said body searches must be conducted in a private setting and body cavity searches were necessary only when prison officials had reason to believe an |inmate was concealing contraband.
“Not all prisoners are subject to body cavity searches. Prisoners who are awaiting court decisions on bail must be separated from convicts but because of overcrowded jail conditions this is not possible,’’ he said.
Prison officials cite this reason for carry out cavity searches on every prisoner, he said. “But the officials must strike a balance between human rights and enforcing strict measures,’’ he said.
Wanchai Rujjanawong, a senior prosecutor and former Corrections Department director general, said he did not agree with cavity searches on the grounds they were a human rights abuse. But he called on society to make a choice between having prisons free of drugs and other contraband or having no human rights violations.
“If we do not want body cavity searches, we must accept it when drugs and mobile phones are found in prisons.
“We can only pick either way and we cannot put high expectations on the Corrections Department [if we choose |not to conduct searches],’’ he |said.
Justice Ministry deputy permanent secretary Kobkiat Kasiwiwat said the Corrections Department had started using body scanners to search inmate to prevent human rights violations.
One scanner has been installed at the Central Women Correctional Institution.
With this scanner, prison officials do not have to conduct body cavity searches on all prisoners but only those who receive positive results when walking past the scanner.
“They would be ordered to sit and stand many times till foreign objects come out of their body and if not, body cavity searches are necessary,’’ he |said.
He said had prison officials known the female student charged with violating the NCPO order was awaiting a court |decision on her bail, she would not have faced body cavity searches.
