The foreigner with probably the best knowledge of the inside of the Central Women’s Correctional Institution in Bangkok is former Miss South African finalist Venessa Goosen. She was arrested in 1994 at the airport with 2.7kg of heroin in her possession. She was initially sentenced to 50 years in the female section of Klong Prem Prison. Over the years she received a series of pardons until finally, after 16 years, she was sent home. A year later, another Souther African, Nolubabalo Nobanda, has just been arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport for allegedly carrying 1.5kg of cocaine in her dreadlocks. Speaking to a South African newspaper, Vanessa tells what it was like in the women’s prison and gives some advice for Nolubabalo and her family.
“Nolubabalo will have a tough time. No-one speaks English. The police and the warders only speak their mother tongue. This is terrifying because you cannot understand anything. She will be taken to the local police station where new prisoners are kept in a filthy, dark basement for up to seven days. There is no mattress or pillows, just the cold floors. Most times the food is contaminated. Goosen claimed the policemen were also very forward and loved “touching women prisoners”.
“At court the language barrier is also a problem. I signed stacks of paperwork that was in [Thai]. I could not understand a word.” Prisoners were then taken to the prison where “the real hell starts”. “You are stripped naked. Violated in every possible way as a doctor, assisted by prisoners, search your entire body for drugs. All your possessions are taken away. All you are left with is a prison uniform.” Nobanda would have to pay for food, toiletries and water. “Nothing is free. If you don’t have money, you starve. I hope Nolubabalo gets cash from her family.”
“Our government does not have a prisoner transfer treaty with countries like Thailand and China. Their hands are also tied because the offenders are tried by the laws of the country they are arrested in.” Goosen said new prisoners found it hard to adjust and suffered severe mental torture at the hands of the authorities and veteran prisoners. “It’s one year since I am home. But, I am still adjusting to normal life. I had to get used to using a cellphone and other technology.
Full story: www.iol.co.za
Yesterday, South Africa’s ambassador to Thailand, Douglas Gibson, was allowed to visit Nobanda after she was transferred to the Women’s Prison in Bangkok. “I am glad to say that Ms Nobanda is in good health and is bearing up well in very difficult circumstances.” He said the embassy expected that Nobanda would appear in court regularly, every 12 days for the next few months. “It will accordingly be many months before the matter comes to trial. We will continue giving consular assistance and doing whatever we can to help. This includes reporting on her wellbeing to our authorities, acting as a conduit for money sent to her by the family, arranging for any medical care that she might need in the future, helping her to register for studies, if she wishes to study, arranging visits by family members and generally doing whatever we can to be kind and caring about a South African in trouble,” he said.
Full story: www.witness.co.za
Related Blog: Inside the Women’s Prison in Bangkok by Frank Lombard
if you don’t want to do the time….don’t do the crime. Suck it up….you made your choices.
People make mistakes.
some mistakes cost lives, destroyed families and society and need to be punish. Intentional ‘mistakes’ like this need severe punishment.
over a kilogram of hard drugs smuggled over international borders doesn’t sound like it was done by mistake
When you replied to that person’s comment about can’ do the crime then don’t do the crime and you replied about people making mistakes, to me they’re aren’t any mistakes here because those people know what the are doing. So the deserves everything that is coming to them.
when you find yourself in trouble, may the first thing you hear be “suck it up”
Whatever ul be doing 4 her must be done to other South Africans in foreign prisons.
yea its easy for idiots to say if you want to do the crime you must serve the time when in all honesty you have no idea what it is all all about. I was born in prison in bangkok any my mother is still serving time there . it has been 19 years now. People murder and get bail, or like 4 years so instead of being narrow minded think before you make a comment because im sure in all do respect you could never grasp the hurt
Crime is crime you know you will be punished so there is no excuse.
yes crime is a crime but time handed out is absurb. Ever heard of second chance. only idiot think they knows everythibg but practically an empty vessel.
they are idiots. Morons. yeah, do the time, but 50 years for carrying around heroin? people who possess heroin in the U.S. just be sent to a drug treatment program for 6 mos. I wonder why U.S. is considered better than Thailand.
Yes, drug smuggling is pretty stupid, but these punishments are stupider. To anyone who says just suck it up: i hope you get like 100 years with the key thrown away next time you get arrested!
In my opinion, no one should do life in a prison cell unless they do something really terrible. Murder, violent rapists or sadists… But not drugs. Regardless of quantity, why would a dealer/distributor be given any more then 10 years is beyond me. Just my two cents…Great site by the way.
The Thai’s see a murderer as a person who has taken one life, but view drugs as the murderer of many lives, families and communitys.
The Thais have a culture that has adapted to opium and cannabis without any of the harm these drugs are said to cause in the West. This says a great deal about the wisdom inherent in Thai culture and equally as much about the brutal intolerance inherent in parts of Western culture.
Allow your culture to modernise in keeping with your Sangha and Bhumipol Rama IX. Beware of farang bearing gifts.
You are in my prayers Babsie you will be pardoned you wont eve do time there. Love you galfreind. Power to you
Sadly, nobody talks about being framed up here. Lots of persons (particularly foreigners) are framed up by drug dealers and wrongly implicated then. So I guess this is also the case with these ladies here, particularly with the kind of corrupt officials present there working in cahoots with drug dealers.
“She was arrested in 1994 at the airport with 2.7kg of heroin in her possession” – how can this be framed?! She was (maybe still is) an idiot trying to make cash fast by being a mule
I have worked for the Department of Corrections Public Safety for over 35 years. As human beings we do stupid things and the hope is we learn from our mistakes. To negate the personal experience of making mistakes and learning is short sighted. Some men and women are criminals and may never learn however there are many men and women who do learn. To change one person in a family begins a chain reaction and the entire family changes. Yep I would agre this individual did indeed know what she was doing and made a terrible mistake. Is it really necessary that she pay with her life?
@Gadgets: you may guess whether or not she is an idiot, but the fact of the matter is that the drugs where hidden in a stack of books she was bringing from BKK back to SA for someone else. The person who asked her to do this doesn’t deny this, and I know them both. So she was certainly very naive, but not an idiot. Idiots are people who think they are very smart when in reality they are very stupid and have no knowledge about the things they feel obliged to comment on. In this case, that would be you.
Sad part is the mules are mostly arrested and subjected to tough times in foreign countries when the kingpins are left in SA(being foreigners) living large and when arrested they get to benefit the luxuries of our prisons
May God gives u and your family the strength through this trying time. You are in my prayers Babsie. Be strong. No one is perfect as we all humans and bound to make mistakes.
She knew the consequences when he took the drugs, so why take them. Okay your stuck up for cash but no amount of money is worth spending the rest of your life in a Thai hellhole. So as some of the other replies say, if you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime, it’ as easy as that.
im almost 100% sure that all the people that say “if u cant do the time dont do the crime” have never been to prison, but have sure as hell committed some crime in their life. in this life there are doctors, lawyers, average joe’s working a day shift, etc. and there are criminals, there is no middle ground, if youre gonna commit a crime make sure its worth it or get a job and stay away from it all.
Another casualty in the ‘war on drugs’. Waste of a life for no reason.
Sadly, another tragic waste of a life. Its all too easy for someone to say ‘if you cant do the time, dont blah blah blah’. Who knows what kind of life this person has had before making this very bad decision. Were they forced??? Do they have learning difficulties which make it hard for them to understand the consequences of the decision they’re making???? WHO KNOWS. Its just plain ignorance to assume that they knew exactly what they were getting into. Leave the Judgement to God!!!!!!!!
As having a wife who is currently serving 3 years for 6gms possesion of “Ice”7 having worked in Thailand as a Gov’t High School Teacher for a few years to boot,i am quite aware of the Prison system by now!I neither condemn or accept.
The reality is there is a major drugs problem there!
Places such as Pattaya has become a cesspit of all manner of undesirables from all corners of the globe & as such Prostitution,Gambling,Drugs & corruption all go hand in hand.
Do not try to equate Western ideals into the equation here!Your only hope is that you can put large sums of money to people in high places.(Before the trial date!)Otherwise you do the time,hopefully with remission
My door is always open for advice & will always try to help families of incarcerated persons.
If you wish to contact me for help or advice:
philipperry@tiscali.co.uk
God Bless!
Ignorance is bliss don’t you think.. It takes a buyer and a dealer to get the end result of a drug… Yes they take lives but you also know the consiquences of taking them so dealer can’t simply take the full blame.. Jail may be necessary and yes ppl know the risks but just because u make 1 bad decision of this small capacity does not simply mean you should have t
Not only your life but your human rights taken away from you… I have read many story’s regarding thie jails and a cockroach wouldn’t be fit to live in them conditions let alone a huma being…. I sounder if your mind would be changed if it was someone close to you … As I said ignorance is bliss… It could happen to anyone…
I can see that most of you people you can judge..but you may forget that is only God who can Judge all these people) it is eassy for you to say But you don’t even realize how it is to say in that place where around you is Death) I have been in that world for 13 years and I was 20 when I get there for a crime I never even knew about..
To me that woman knew that he was smuggling those drugs so to me she deserves what is coming to her, because she can’t say she ever knew that she had them on her.
Everything happens for a reason, I hope and believe that the’ll be a best outcome out of this. Be strong, pray hard, avoid the negativity coming from people, I’m sure God has forgiven you already, will pray for your safety. Love u Babsie
let those without sin cast the first stone we are all sinner,s