Subculture of Inmates in Thai Prisons

Abstract

     This qualitative research explains the characteristics of inmate grouping, the structure of prison groups, and the substructural model of inmates afflicting the prison administration. In-depth interviews were conducted with the group chiefs called “leaders” and with the authorities of five central prisons in Thailand empowered to control inmates sentenced to more than a 30-year term. The results revealed that most inmates were grouped by the same domicile before being convicted. Such grouping was to help their stay, to share among members, and to prevent maltreatment from other inmates. Such grouping, in general, presented no cultural clashes with the prison regulations but the subculture plagued the prison administration with three peculiarities: 1) the early adult inmate grouping with offensive records during youth, 2) the body and facial tattoo grouping, and 3) the trafficker grouping with financial influence in order to have a larger subculture group to exploit violations of the prison regulations such as mobile phone smuggling, trafficking, gambling, and blackmailing. Group size and the “Home” groupings were indispensible to building the group’s values and beliefs in the right direction or toward violation of the prison regulations.