PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR HEALTH, SANITATION AND ANNUAL HEALTH CHECK-UP OF FEMALE PRISONERS.

Abstract

Penalty enforcement is one of the judicial tools the state has the authority to enforce. Good penalty enforcement laws must comply with the international principles of the United Nations, which are the minimum standards recognized as the standard by all member countries. This research was to study the preventive measures for health, sanitation and annual health check-up of female prisoners, and those measures should be developed to be of greater quality rather than the previous condition in order to meet the fundamental rights which female prisoners should receive in accordance with the international principles in line with the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders or the “Bangkok Rules”. The objectives of this study were to 1) explore concepts and background of the penalty enforcement laws, 2) find out the theories regarding the preventive measures for health, sanitation and annual health check-up of female prisoners, 3) investigate the penalty enforcement laws in Thailand and other countries, and 4) search for problems and present the guidelines for the inadequacy of preventive measures for health, sanitation and annual health check-up of female prisoners.

The findings revealed that: 1) there were too many female prisoners in Thai prisons, and they did not receive adequate treatment on health, sanitation and annual health check-up.  2) The relationship between penalty objectives and penalty enforcement should be reviewed in order to create the well-being prisons or the holistic health standardization in prisons. 3) England and the United States of America have implemented the equality on the preventive measures on health, sanitation, and annual health check-up of female prisoners. 4) The current Thai laws do not cover and synchronize with the situation of the health issues of female prisoners in Thailand. The Corrections laws were written to enforce both male and female prisoners. They were not meant to deal with health issues of the female prisoners specifically. Moreover, there were overwhelming problems regarding the administration of the prisons such as the budget, personnel, and attitude of the prison officers.  

The preventive measures for health, sanitation and annual health checks for female prisoners should be added in the Corrections Act B.E. 2560 in Part 4 concerning the hygiene of prisoners which covers the right to dental examination, the right to a hearing test, the right to ophthalmological examination, the right to a test for epidemic diseases or serious contagious disease for the 12-month cycle, the right to cancer screening, the right to  regular mental health examination for the 6-month cycle as well as other preventive measures by using the principles of health or holistic health in prisons which is the prison management in the new era; that is to say, apart from controlling prisoners from escaping, there must be the focus on protecting and improving the lives of prisoners, resulting in sustainable development of preventive measures for health of the prisons in Thailand.