Political prisoners held at the Bangkok Remand Prison and their friends and family have said that they are having a hard time staying connected after the prison shop suspended the sale of pens and the prison imposed a new regulation on detainees’ letters.

A letter from Anon Nampa exhibited at an exhibtion in July 2024. (Photo by Ginger Cat)

Last Monday (2 September), a post was made on human rights lawyer and activist Anon Nampa’s Facebook page asking how detainees are expected to write letters if the prison does not sell pens.

To stay in touch with friends and family, detainees rely on handwritten letters, which are then scanned and sent to recipients via an application called DomiMail. Lookwa (full name withheld), Anon’s wife, said that Anon, who is held at the Bangkok Remand Prison, told her that the prison shop ran out of pens a month ago. She also said that she needed to constantly buy him pens, which cost 5 baht each in the prison shop, because the pens were not long-lasting and the detainees could not try them out before buying them the way they would be able to if they were buying from a stationery shop.

Khem (full name withheld), a friend of detained activist Sirapob Phumphengphut, also said that she tried to order pens for him through the Bangkok Remand Prison shop’s Line account, where relatives can order necessities for detainees. She was told that the prison shop has suspended the sale of pens and that she will be informed when they are back in stock.

A screenshot of a message from the prison shop on the Line application telling Sirapob's mother not to order pens since the prison shop is currently not selling them.

Meanwhile, it has become more difficult to send letters through the DomiMail application. Lookwa said that the prison now only acceptsletters from the 10 people registered with the prison as visitors. A detainee can now only receive and send one letter per day, while previously there was no limit. She speculated that these regulations are specific to each prison, noting that the women’s prison only allows letters to be sent and received during the weekend.

Lookwa speculated that the prison is trying to limit the number of letters being sent or received because it is trying to censor the letters, and because the prison could not check all of the letters as more people are now using the DomiMail application, which is more convenient than sending handwritten letters by post.

“The people most affected are political prisoners , because we know that many people in prison have people who are interested in their life and wants to give them encouragement,” Lookwa said. “Allowing them to receive only 1 letter out of 10 means that letters take more time to reach them if we suppose 10 people are sending them letters but they can only receive one per day.”

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), Sirapob told his lawyers that if multiple letters are sent to him in one day, he would only receive the first letter after its content has been checked. The remaining letters would be discarded. Moreover, if he wants to send more than one letter per day, he has to file a petition and submit the letters to be checked – a process which takes 2 – 3 days.

There is also a cost to sending the letters. To be able to send and receive letters through the DomiMail system, a detainee’s family member must pay for both incoming and outgoing letters. They are also required to buy 10 letters at a time, costing 100 baht, and since they must buy 10 for themselves and 10 for the detainee, the total cost of buying letter is 200 baht. Credit card fees are also added on top of the cost when buying on the application, and there is also a fee if they are paying through a convenience store.

Sirapob said that detainees now have a 15-line limit to their letters. He speculated that the prison is trying to solve the problem of not having enough people to check detainees’ letters by imposing limits on the detainees. These conditions are causing him more stress , he said, since he relies on the letters to stay in touch with his friends and family.

Meanwhile, Thanayut na Ayutthaya, a rapper and activist also detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison, told his lawyers that printouts of the new regulations were put up around the prison, and that these conditions have been in effect since 26 August. He said that they made it difficult for detainees to stay connected to the outside world, especially for people whose families live far away or who have to communicate with someone about their case.

Thanayut said that the new regulations make no sense and violate detainees’ right to communication. Since a detainee’s family is required to pay to send and receive prison letters, Thanayut said that the new regulations could mean they paid for nothing, and the prison should either fix the problem or give them a refund.

Thanayut also said that the prison shop told the detainees that pens are out of stock and that it is unable to restock. Some officers claimed that detainees may use pens to light a fire, but Thanayut questions how that can be done.

Ukrit Santiprasitkul, another detained student activist, told TLHR that detainees are also not allowed to draw on their letters and are only allowed to write in English or Thai. He said that there are foreigners detained in the prison who cannot use English or Thai, and this regulation made it more difficult for them to write and send letters.

Part of letter from detained activist Sopon Surariddhidhamgrong to his friend appears to have been erased.

Letters from political prisoners have also been censored. Thanapat Dhammachoti, a friend of detained activist Sopon Surariddhidhamrong, said that some words in letters Sopon sent his friends were erased, such as when he mentions “honking the horn” in one of his letters. Thanapat said that, although the term is related to another case, it should not be censored if it doesn’t offend anyone, noting that he was told by some detainees that letters are often checked by other detainees and that some letters were not sent at all because of a word that has been used or the subject. One of Sopon letters was never sent at all, Thanapat said, because it talks about activist Netiporn Sanesangkhom, who died in prison following a hunger strike to demand judicial reform.

Users of the DomiMail application have also been informed following an application update that there are not allowed to post letters they receive from detainees on social media or they could face legal action. However, there is no report of anyone receiving a warning following the update.

According to TLHR, the DomiMail system is used in around 10 prisons in Bangkok, Songkhla, and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Other prisons still send letters by post, and TLHR has found that it often takes up to 2 months for detainees’ letters to reach the recipients.

TLHR said that political prisoners held at the Bangkok Remand Prison have filed an appeal with the prison director for the regulation to be revised, but so far no action has been taken.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Lawyer Association (HRLA) demanded that the Bangkok Remand Prison ensure that detainees are able to communicate with the outside world, noting that not providing pens for detainees to write letters could be a violation of the 2017 Corrections Act and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), both of which states that detainees should be allowed to communicate with family and friends, including by writing letters and having visitors.