Security remains tight at Songkhla's prison

SONGKHLA, THAILAND, June 9 (TNA) - Security measures at Songkhla's prison in the Thai Far South remain tight, following Monday's riot, which, according to updated reports, led to one death and nine injuries, including a prison official. The prison has remained closed and authorities have deployed nearly 200 police officers at the prison to maintain order, as more than 200 relatives visited inmates on Tuesday morning to make sure that they were safe from Monday's violence. Songkhla's prison chief Phiratphon Wongwet told reporters that relatives have been allowed to visit inmates as usual, while the body of the male prisoner, who died during Monday's riot and an official probe into the cause of his death was continuing, has been kept at Songkhla Hospital awaiting his relatives to take the body back for a funeral. Meanwhile, Corrections Department Director-General Wittaya Suriyawong told journalists that leading inmates who triggered the June 8 riot have been separated and will then be prosecuted. The corrections department chief vowed, however, that a plan to regulate prisons nationwide to improve their environment and inmates' living condition will be carried on, as instructed by the Ministry of Justice. According to corrections department chief, the incumbent Songkhla's prison chief will not be transferred, as pressured by inmates, because he has followed the Ministry of Justice's policy on regulating the prison. Apart from the overcrowding condition at the prison, the protesting inmates, who set fire on and damaged two buildings, also claimed about insufficient food and stricter rules, namely the one barring them from using plastic bags, as part of an official regulating plan in order to prevent the drug problem and other offences inside prisons nationwide. The about 10-hour riot by over 200 inmates at Songkhla's prison was brought under control on Monday afternoon, after Commanding General of the 4th Army Area Command Lieutenant General Prakarn Chonlayuth and Corrections Department Deputy Director General Ruangsak Suvaree successfully negotiated with four leading inmates by agreeing to solve problems as their demands, especially the overcrowding condition in the prison. (TNA)