Other than Gitmo, my guess is the worst prison in the US is vastly better than most prisons around the world. Hear that, Paris Hilton? If you were arrested in a third world country and sent to prison, then you’d have something to complain about.
Interestingly, Thailand has a website for it’s prison system. It even has a section on submitting for a royal pardon.
Man’s 17-year Thai prison ‘hell’
The longest-serving British prisoner overseas has returned to the UK after serving 17 years in Thai jails – despite maintaining his innocence.
Alan John Davies, 65, from Blackpool, Lancashire, was convicted of trying to sell a large amount of heroin to a police informer in Thailand.
Mr Davies was sentenced to death after a trial in September 1994, a term later reduced to 25 years in jail.
Fair Trials Abroad say he was the victim of a “miscarriage of justice”
He was shackled with heavy leg irons for two years while on death row in the high-security Bangkwang prison in Nonthaburi.
Mr Davies was later transferred to Klong Prem prison in Bangkok and said his wife died while he was in jail.
Describing the conditions he said: “It was a hell-hole. You understand that 10% of the prison population die every year – about 5,000 prisoners.”
Alan Davies
If I was the new British Premier – I’d make him the official Thai Ambassador.
– pay-back time
– help others
– Thai is more his home than Lancashire is now.
His friends, wife, all moved on, etc.
// wanted to add “good food” but that might be in poor taste with article
Oh yeah? I bet he’d rather have been in Gitmo instead of a Thai prison. I also suspect the United States Penitentiary in Marion is worse than Gitmo.
Check out the website for the Thai prison system. Looks like a parody of http://www.engrish.com!
“my guess is the worst prison in the US is vastly better than most prisons around the world”
I don’t know about that … head South in the US and you can see some real hell-holes.
#2. Probably less torture at Marion than Gitmo.
As far as amenities goes, Gitmo isn’t all that bad. It’s clean, and the food is ethnic.(sarcasm)
There are prisons in the south that make Gitmo look like Club Med.
I would like to get into this guys story a lot deeper. It seems that everytime Thailand catches a drug dealer that is from abroad, they all claim to be not guilty, but most are.
For him to come out alive and healthy looking after 17 years, then someone was paying big bucks for his **care**.
I bet his prison name was Susan.
So American prisons don’t rape or torture as much as Thai prisons do.
And… we should be proud? and you’re ragging on a young girl that she should be grateful for being raped only a little bit? She gave up willingly and has publicly stated she was wrong and will take her punishment. Men hate her ’cause she won’t do them, and women hate her ’cause they can’t be her. You all are a little too happy to see a girl raped.
When is Limbaugh going in? Enron’s management and employees? I hear the crickets…
And you know, gee golly, how many prisons would there be if we didn’t make some drugs legal? How much money is being made on imprisonment and funny funny rape pens to “save us from ourselves”?
My take on this: Its apparent he never had the heroin to sell them, if he did they would have killed him with no troubles. I was in that part of the world in the early 90’s I couldn’t find a hotel room with a toilet, I could only imagine what the prisons would have been like. I’m not saying the guy fell off a flower truck, but 17 years is a lot of time, we are given so little of it from the get go.
Have to comment on this as I live in Thailand and have for the past 15 years. If you would really like to know what Thai Prisons are like read a book called “The Damage Done”. I do not believe that American Prisons can compare and doubt even Gitmo is in the running. Regarding this guy it is unlikely he was totally innocent. If the Thais kept someone for that long there was a reason. Bangkwan is horrid beyond belief and everyone you meet there is innocent. This case is fairly famous here, he claims to have been framed by the British Embassy (who apparently told the court that he was wanted for heroin trafficking in England) and he had a previous conviction for fraud. Not saying he is guilty but that there is a lot more to this story.
#10 – Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good ‘he’s innocent’ thread.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time!…. I have no simpathy for these people. They are common criminals and got what they deserved.
Who cares what the circumstances are…. “I was tricked into carrying the drugs” sure! If thats the case you should be in jail for being stupid!
Decriminalize all drugs, take the profit out of it, stop killing people for something stupid like a pound of grass.
If someone executed my kid for drugs, i would hunt him down and kill his whole family.