A chance at redemption: Breaking Thailand’s problem with repeat offenders

300,000 baht (U.S. $9,106.65) a week.

That’s what Wannawat “Bom” Hanrungruang used to earn from dealing drugs in Thailand – a six-figure number that most Thais could only dream of.

In their country, the highest minimum weekly wage is about 2,000 baht ($60.71). But Bom, now 42, wasn’t satisfied.

“I lacked a normal life, so I had to sell more drugs to use the money to buy happiness,” Bom recalled in a video interview with BenarNews.

In 2006, he was sent to prison for six years for drug trafficking. In 2016, he returned to prison for four years, having committed the same offense.

Bom’s story reflects Thailand’s high recidivism rates and the challenges faced by thousands of repeat offenders. 

The Southeast Asian country also has one of the highest prisoner-to-population rates in the world, with 377 people jailed per 100,000, according to a June 2024 study by the Prison Policy Initiative, an international nonprofit.

Out of 10 prisoners this year, more than four (44%) are repeat offenders, according to the Office for the Bangkok Rules, a division under the government’s Thailand Institute of Justice.

“About one-third of prisoners released from Thai prisons are reincarcerated within three years,” it said in a March 2021 report. 

“These ex-convicts have a wall in their mind that they cannot overcome past mistakes, so they won’t give themselves a chance or encouragement. They still feel they are a burden to their families and society,” said Chontit Chuenurah, a director at the Office for the Bangkok Rules.

If Thailand wants to address the high recidivism rate, it should deal with various underlying factors, such as the social stigma against former prisoners, unemployment, and drug addiction, according to the TIJ study.

“If we can reduce recidivism, it will increase the safety in society,” Chontit told BenarNews.

Now out of prison and working as an artist, Bom says he only realized how important second chances are for repeat offenders like him. 

“I felt nothing for the word ‘chance’ until the day I got out and couldn’t see my own footsteps behind me.”