Klong Prem Prison move to be studied

A joint committee of the Justice and Finance ministries and the Office of the Judiciary has been set up to come up with a plan within 15 days to move Bangkok's Klong Prem Central Prison outside the city.

The prison's current location in Chutuchak district will be expropriated by the Finance Ministry, Corrections Department chief Suchart Wong-anantachai said yesterday.

The Finance Ministry's expropriation plan also covers other prisons, including Bang Kwang and Lat Yao, according to a 2004 Cabinet resolution that called for inner-city prisons to move to suburban areas.

A Corrections Department source said that the Cabinet resolution aimed to turn the city prison locations into commercial centres.

The committee will study the Klong Prem move's impacts, including distance from the city, inmate supervision and court jurisdiction as well as consideration of the Treasury Department's budget allocation for new prison construction.

A previous study looked into moving Bang Kwang and Nonthaburi provincial prison. However, those plans have been put on hold because the Treasury Department has not allocated funds to build new prisons.