Pre-release Prisoner Preparation Program: the Agricultural Module adopted by Self-sufficiency Econom
Department of Corrections
Thailand

The Problem

Pre-Operational Stage
Pre-release prisoner preparation programs of the Department of Corrections, Thailand have largely dealt with agricultural trainings. The Open Correctional Institutions and Open Prisons are home for the mission. Formerly prisoners were given agricultural practices in prisons where they were imprisoned. Activities related to agricultural training as vocation are ranging from seasonal fruit gardening, rubber wood plantation, livestock etc. Mono-agriculture or non-diversified agriculture was predominantly applied, while organic agriculture was rather unknown. The Department of Corrections therefore has adopted the Self-sufficiency Economy Philosophy to implement in prison settings for educating prisoners.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Benefits of the Project
The pre-release prisoner preparation is cultivating and altering prisoner lifestyle to be more self-sufficient. Besides it aims to strengthen ethics and moral system in prisoner life-course in order to be well in both social interaction and self reliance. On the subject of self reliance, prisoners shall live on legitimate vocation and spend money on the economical basis. The concepts of having the reasonableness and immunity for good thoughts came from all trainings much enough to establish profound understanding in the Self-sufficiency Economy Philosophy. As a result these prisoners shall shift the way of behaving and becoming a law-abiding citizens in community on their release.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Suggestions of project operators and stakeholders
The outset of embracing of the Self-sufficiency Economy to the Department of Corrections originally initiated by the Royal philosophy of the His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Self-sufficiency Economy Philosophy. The Royal Philosophy is comparable to the guidance given to all walks of life. It suggests the conception of self sufficiency to be applied in all levels such as personal, family, community, broader society, and national level. It also includes the public and private sectors. The Department of Corrections is one of the organizations that have taken the philosophy to implement into prisoners life path.

The Department of Corrections has its main responsibilities, that is, to securely and humanely keep prisoners in custody according to court sentence and to rehabilitate prisoners in order to return decent citizens to the community. In the time of economics, social, environmental and cultural shift, the Department of Corrections has impacted by increasing workload because of the rising number of offenders. The new expectation from society to the Department of Corrections is not only to keep custody bad criminals inside, but also to rehabilitate them.

At the beginning the Department of Corrections has brought the 3 principles and 2, underlying conditions, which comprises of Moderation, Reasonableness, and Self-immunity system as the three components. Secondly, Knowledge and Morality content are two necessary underlying conditions to achieve the three main principles. The implementing framework can be divided into 3 sectors as follows;

1. Personal level
2. Organizational level
3. Prisoner level

The main principle is to steering the personal and organizational levels simultaneously. The results generated in the Personal and Organizational levels will eventually making a change in prisoner level as believed that the prisoner learn from the good model and examples and at the end prisoner will follow this development.

The Department of Corrections, with the implementation of the Self-sufficiency Economy Philosophy, has objectives as follows;

1. At Organizational level (Department of Corrections, prisons and correctional institutions) the philosophy shall be implemented to the prison management, treatment of prisoners and public service.
2. At Personal level (civil servants, and staffs) the philosophy shall be enlightened ways of living according to the self-sufficiency.
3. At Prisoner level (in custodial responsibility of the Department of Corrections) the philosophy shall be implemented after being released from prison in order to prevent recidivism in future.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Pre-release prisoner preparation followed the agricultural module according to the Self-sufficiency Economy Philosophy has objectives to; educate prisoners, alter prisoners’ attitude, live on self-sufficient basis, become law-abiding citizens, and decrease potential of reconviction. Its operation is being shown as follows;
1. To operate in prisons/ correctional institutions and open correctional institutions and open prisons so that there shall be learning process in terms of theoretical and practical spheres.
2. To establish the Self-sufficiency Knowledge Center, Release Preparation Center for pre-release prisoners so that there shall be some preparation in terms of mental readiness, vocational training, and learning the Self-sufficiency Economy Philosophy as these following operational practices;
2.1 The foundation of Sufficiency Economy Patio for exhibition aiming to be the knowledge center for inmates and people, who are interested in “New Theory” for agriculture and the Self-Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, which is composed of 3 methods:
2.1.1 To exhibit the principle or theory of Sufficiency Economy under his Royal initiation;
2.1.2 To show the entire process of the Self-Sufficiency Economy’s demonstration field, such as prisoner’s selection, area preparation etc.
2.1.3 To be the place of agricultural knowledge, such as fertilizer making, food processing and preserving and Wood Vinegar making (Nam-som-kwan-mai).
2.2 The process of the Self-Sufficiency Economy’s demonstration field should be described as follow:
2.2.1 Select the prisoner who has not over 2 years left for imprisonment (and other suitable criteria) and being healthy, interested to be an agriculturist or used to be an agriculturist, which after released will be careered as an agriculturist. According to the number of prisoner joining this project, it depends upon the field’s size.
2.2.2 Educate and provide training in the Self-sufficiency Economy/ agricultural studies e.g. organic fertilizer making, soil enrichment, food preservation, business strategies etc.
2.2.3 Allocate the land in open prisons and open correctional institutions in the size of 1-5 Rai for practicing the Self-Sufficiency Economy’s demonstration field.
2.2.4 Operate the Self-Sufficiency Economy’s demonstration field in the entire process starting from planning, planting, cultivating and consuming and lastly selling the surplus produces for future fundraising the project’s budget.
3. Support the inmates for building up and developing their lives, being initiative thinker and being able to make a living on morally and legally abiding.
4. Post-release Supports for all aspects of living such as suggestion and guidance provision, monetary sponsorship for embarking on law-abiding life. These efforts aim to prevent recidivism.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Currently, The Thai Department of Corrections is supervising 77 Open Prisons and 5 Open Corrective Institutions, which means 82 in total. Ten of these places have been founded as the Self-Sufficiency Economy Knowledge Center. Each place will be filled with 50-70 prisoners:
1. Khao-kling Open Prison, under Petchaburi Central Prison
2. Khae-noi Open Prison, under Petchaboon Provincial Prison
3. Khao-noi Open Prison, under Nan Provincial Prison
4. Khao-Ra-Kham Open Prison, under Trad Provincial Prison
5. Pong-Yang-Kok Open Prison, under Lumpang Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts
6. Riang-Hong Open Prison, under Trang Provincial Prison
7. Krabi-Noi Open Prison, under Krabi Provincial Prison
8. Doi-Rang Open Prison, under Chiangrai Central Prison
9. Khok-Taban Open Prison, under Surin Central Prison
10. Toong-Benja Open Correctional institution, Chanburi
At current the operation of the Self-Sufficiency Economy Knowledge Center in Open Prison and open correctional institutions under the Department of Corrections has been developed in good progression. Prisoners are acknowledged and equipped with the knowledge of the Self-Sufficiency Economy philosophy. As a result prisoners have life skills in changing world. The Department of Corrections projects that the Self-Sufficiency Economy Knowledge Centers will be supported by increasing the number of the Center around the country for the benefits of prisoners. Furthermore, the Center will enhance the Royal Philosophy to Thai people and to prisoners.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
There were obstacles encountered during the progress of implementing the initiative, such as
1. Partaking parties had not deeply understood, or not fully inspired to follow the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy ways of life. Hence, they were not interested in adopting the philosophy for their lifestyles.
2. Materialism was still admired and valued in Thai society. Thus, there had to be means to change people’s taste and values, and to point out the benefits of living in sufficient ways.
3. To introduce the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy to prisoners in correctional facilities, there had to be expert speakers, local leaders, or success persons to show their experiences and practical knowledge to prisoners and prison staff.
4. Besides of low rate of social acceptance, environment and community, where prisoners lived after their release, were not suitable for ex-prisoners to adopt their lessons learnt from the correctional facilities to their daily lives. Because there were no association to continue and further their sustainably sufficient lifestyle in the community.
These problems blocked and impeded prisoners and ex-prisoners to fully and
successfully adopt Sufficiency Economy Philosophy to their lives.
In order to overcome the mentioned problems, there were solutions implemented to pave the way for ex-prisoners’ sustainable sufficient lifestyle.
1. Provide supports for sustainable sufficient lifestyle in many fields of development plans, for example; policy implementation, budget allocation, connections creating, and seeking for cooperation in the community
2. Encourage prison staff in all levels to adjust Sufficiency Economy Philosophy to their work performances. Frequently educate prison staff about the philosophy, and provide them practicing programs.
3. Conduct the follow-up and assessments of programs or activities related to the philosophy. Check out the recidivism rate of ex-prisoners who take part in the programs. Provide advice unit for ex-prisoners. Check out the feedback and regularly improve the programs and activities.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Resources used for the initiative were;
1. Allocated budget: the Department of Corrections was allocated with the budget to support correctional facilities to provide a variety of vocational training programs in agricultural field to prisoners, for example, animal farming, vegetables planting, and, young plant nursery, bio-agricultures, hydroponics planting, mushroom farming, compost making, Bio-diesel producing, and food preservation, etc.
2. Knowledge support: Prisoners will be educated with Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy. This is to implant the 3 concepts of sufficiency, reasonableness, and self-immunity.
3. Instructors: the Department of Corrections was supported with instructors and lecturers from outside organizations, and local intellectual speakers.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Considering Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy as the functional method to help rehabilitate prisoners and prevent them from reoffending, the Department of Corrections encouraged prisoners to change their attitudes of life by adapting the philosophy to their daily life during incarceration and after release. The Department hoped that the initiative adapted from Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy would help ex-prisoners to refrain from wrongdoing and to live their life peacefully in the society. In order to sustain the productivity of the initiative, the Department of Corrections attempted to work in cooperation with many outside agencies, both private and public sectors, to create proper environment for reintegration to the society of the prisoners. The alliances worked with the Department such as local administration families, organizations, temples, and the Department of Probation, etc.
In the future, the Department of Corrections plans to establish the Sufficiency Economy Center in every open correctional institution all over the country to support and promote the philosophy to prisoner’s life, aiming that the philosophy would help prisoners certainly refrain from wrong doing.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Prisoners who took part in the training program of Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy would learned and understood about the ways of life, vocational training, life improvement, mental improvement, and pre-release programs. In the pre-release center of the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, there were various kinds of vocational training programs provided to prisoners. Prisoners would be educated about the proper lifestyles such as saving money, paying debt, and planning life after release. When prisoners finished the pre-release programs, they would be ready, both physically and mentally, to reintegrate to the society. The prisoners could get back to their families and peacefully stay together, earn a living and rely on themselves, and refrain from offending. The parties which gained benefits from the initiatives were
1. the Department of Corrections: reduce the burden of taking in custody of offenders
2. prisoners: earn their living and depend on themselves after release
3. community: regain decent citizen into the society
The Department of Corrections has promoted the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy by setting it in to the emphasized policy of the Department. There would be extra programs or project to support the development of the initiative and continue the initiative among the agencies under the Department. Annually, awards would be presented to the most outstanding personnel who properly adopt the initiative to their lifestyle as the way to promote and encourage prison staff to be interested in living their life by means of sufficiency. The factors indicated the success of the initiative were:
1. prison manager realized the important of the initiative and provide fully support to related activities
2. prison staff contributed in the activities
3. prisoner paid attention to the activities and appreciated the HM the King initiative
4. outside agencies offered cooperation by support lectures or speakers to give lessons to the prisoners

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Department of Corrections
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Jiraporn Eimsonboon
Title:   Office of Administration Development  
Telephone/ Fax:   662 525 2628
Institution's / Project's Website:   662 525 2629
E-mail:   jiraporn_eim@yahoo.com  
Address:   222 Nonthaburi 1 rd.
Postal Code:   11000
City:   Muang
State/Province:   Nonthaburi
Country:   Thailand

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