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Published on February 9, 2008

"I'm very glad that I'm going back home with you, Mum. I will obey what you tell me," one 17-year-old boy, Wicha (not his real name), told his mother as they cried and hugged each other.

His mother said this was the first time the boy had prostrated before her and given her a big hug since he became a teenager. "My son has been changed so much after attending the [shock therapy] programme. I am very delighted."

Shock therapy is a five-day programme at the remand home that aims to "improve youths' behaviour".

Meanwhile, Suwit (not his real name), a 17-year-old vocational student, said he would pay more attention to lessons and intended to get a 3.00 GPA (grade-point average) in the next semester.

About 100 parents came to the home to bail their sons out yesterday morning. Thirty-four female teenagers who were arrested at the same time and kept at the Baan Pranee Remand Home were also released on bail yesterday. Bail was set at Bt3,000.

The 108 racers under 18 years old were arrested late on Sunday night for holding and participating in motorcycle racing on Rama VI Road. They will be sentenced at the Central Juvenile and Family Court on March 18, according to the director of the Bangkok Juvenile Observation and Protection Centre.

Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection director-general Paisarn Wichienkuer said the shock therapy programme was aimed at improving youths' behaviour in a short time. The authorities instructed them in many activities to improve their discipline, life skills and moral ethics, including painting, listening to sermons by monks, studying laws and practising military drills.

"On the fifth day of the programme, they looked completely different from the first day, when it was obvious that they were serious and distraught. Now they look cheerful," Paisarn said.

Paisarn said his department has been conducting the shock therapy programme since 2003. Of the more than 260 youths who were remanded for illegal street racing and took part in the programme, only about half a dozen had been remanded again, and none of them for the same crime.

"These teenagers were not aggressive, as I never saw any impolite expressions during the training. I hope none of them ever come back here [Baan Metta Remand Home] for committing crimes," said Sukhon Bosri, 58, one of the programme's trainers.

Before letting them go home, the staff at the remand home made the parents and youths take part in activities to improve their relationships. The youths had to promise their parents that they would obey their instructions and return home before 9pm every day.

Wannapa Phetdee

The Nation