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The Department of Corrections has dismissed 13 prison officers on charges relating to smuggling drugs and mobile phones into prisons, the department chief said yesterday.
The 13 fired consisted of both senior and junior officers, said Witthaya Suriyawong, director-general of the department.
Three of them have been arrested and charged for possession of drugs, while 10 others are being investigated for smuggling drugs and phones into prisons, he said.
Another officer was sacked after he abandoned his work for more than 15 days, Mr Witthaya said.
The officers lost their jobs after disciplinary probes into their alleged misconduct found them guilty, he said, adding that seven also face charges for alleged involvement in prison drug rings.
Over the past six months, nine prison officers have been dismissed after they were either proved to have been involved with drugs or arrested by police in drug cases, Mr Witthaya said.
Seven other prison officers were fired for abandoning their duties, while 51 have been transferred to other prisons because they were suspected of involvement in drug-related misconduct.
The department is accelerating its disciplinary probes against the officials so that punitive action can be taken, Mr Witthaya said.
The department’s resolution to dismiss the 14 officers was a clear message to other civil servants that the department had begun to get tough on those involved with drugs, he said.
Aside from implementing tough measures against prison officers involved with drugs, the department was overhauling its eight maximum security prisons to adjust the proportion of those convicted for serious crimes to ease the prisons’ workload, Mr Witthaya said.
