The Bangkok Corrections Museum prison life in a Thai jail

The Bangkok Corrections Museum in Maha Chai Road preserves
gruesome aspects of Thai prison history and the brutal prison
life before reforms were made to the penal system.

It\'s located on the site of a former Bangkok maximum security
prison built in 1890, during the reign of King Chulalongkorn
(King Rama V) after a study visit to the prisons in Singapore.

The prison museum was first established in 1939, in another
prison, the Bang Kwang Central Prison, as a training center for
corrections officers. Located in Nonthaburi just outside
Bangkok, the Bang Kwang Central Prison has earned the dubious
sobriquet, \Bangkok Hilton\.

In 1987, the Thai government decided to demolish the prison in
Maha Chai Road. Three blocks, a cellblock, a side of the prison
wall and two watchtowers were preserved to establish the Bangkok
Corrections Museum. The rest of the prison compound was
converted to a public park.

The park was named Romanni Nart Park and officially opened on 7
August 1999 by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha
Vajiralongkorn.

The old penal system was based on retribution through severe
punishment and suffering. This is painfully apparent as one goes
through the exhibits in the museum.

The ground floor of Block 1 in the Bangkok Corrections Museum
where our tour starts, features photographs of the old prison
compound and the process of demolition. There\'s a scaled model
of the old prison compound then and the park and museum now, a
stark contrast.

The exhibits upstairs are grisly; life-size waxed figures in
execution scenes. Previously, condemned prisoners were flogged
90 times before being beheaded by sword. Three executioners are
used to ensure that the job gets done.

King Prajadhipok (King Rama VII) abolished this practice in
1934.

The rifle replaced the sword. The condemned prisoner is tied
behind a screen with his back to the screen. The executioner
fires a pre-aligned rifle mounted on a tripod from the other
side of the screen. Photographs display the gory results of both
forms of execution.

Executions in Thailand were changed to lethal injection in
October 2003.

Blocks 2 & 3 of the Bangkok Corrections Museum are a pleasant
reprieve from the mock execution chambers. These blocks exhibit
furniture and handicraft, of a high quality, made by prisoners
from all over the Thailand. The items are for sale.

The last stop in the Bangkok Corrections Museum is through the
gate in the old prison wall fronting Rommani Nart Park. Block 9
is a preserved two-story cellblock in the old prison compound,
not a place for the fainted-hearted.

Cells in this block exhibit the execution frame to which the
condemned prisoner is tied, crockery for the last meal, gambling
and drugs paraphernalia used by prisoners.

Other cells display tools for the brutal punishment of
prisoners, a display made more gruesome by the life-size figures
used:

A rattan ball pierced with nails into which the prisoner is
trussed. An elephant is used to kick the rattan ball around!

A coffin-like box, with a perforated lid, in which a prisoner is
bound and left to bake in the sun with the lid closed.

Sharpened bamboo sticks driven by a mallet under the nails of
prisoners whose hands are fixed in wooden vices............

In 1908, as part of penal reforms, King Chulalongkorn (King Rama
V) abolished all these barbarous tortures.

The pleasant Rommani Nart Park today belies the horrors of the
prison it replaced. Old men sit and watch the day go by as
teenagers engage in robust ball games. The torture and
sufferings in past prison life seemed so distant, preserved only
in the Bangkok Corrections Museum.

In 2005, some social scientists in Thailand have commented that
the prisons are getting too comfortable to serve as deterrence!

Has the pendulum swung the other way?

To tour this unusual Bangkok legacy, please see map to the Bangkok Corrections
Museum.