Pattaya, Thailand, Prisoners to Reap Some Benefits from Privatisation.

Sep. 3--Prisoners in Pattaya may welcome the prospect of becoming the first in the country to be controlled by a private company as they will receive proper medical care and a better opportunity to acquire work skills.

In the next two months, the Corrections Department will call tenders from private companies to operate Pattaya City Prison. The terms of reference, projected value of the contract and other details were being prepared, said Nathee Chitsawang, the department's deputy director-general.

"This will be a pilot project to compare the efficiency of the public and private sectors. If the private operation proves successful, it will be expanded to other prisons," Mr Nathee said.

Pattaya prison was selected for the trial because it was newly-built and had been in use for only two months, he said. It has 300 inmates and the capacity to accommodate up to 1,000. Ten more prisons are earmarked for privatisation but at least one year is needed to evaluate the first operation.

"We'll allow companies to run prisons that hold inmates guilty of only minor crimes or those serving terms of less than five years, not serious offenders," Mr Nathee said.

Private management of prisons is not new abroad where 23 companies are involved. Cornell Correction Inc, Wackenhutt Corrections Corp and Corrections Corp of America are international firms that operate prisons in Australia, Britain and the US. Corrections Corp of America run 82 prisons worldwide with a total of 72,000 prisoners.

Mr Nathee said these companies were welcome to bid for the contract, which had attracted interest from local companies, especially security guard services.