Thailand to end shackling of inmates

BANGKOK, May 12 (TNA) - From May 15, the government will officially start exercising a regulation to prohibit the shackling of inmates with serious offenses, which has been practiced in Thailand for over a century. Police Colonel Suchart Wongananchai, Director of Department of Corrections, told reporters Sunday that his department will hold a ceremony to launch the new regulation at the Bang Kwang Central Prison in Bangkok on Wednesday. He said the ceremony will be presided over by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. According to the Corrections Department director, the regulation has been exercised at the prison for more than two months, as an experimentation. He said the regulation will help improve living conditions of inmates in prison, adding that prisoners will still have to be shackled when they appear in courts. (TNA)