“When officers smile, prisoners smile”: Implementing the Nelson Mandela Rules in Thailand

Bangkok, 15 July 2026 – From the outside, it looks like your usual coffee truck. You can look through the coffee types listed outside, make a choice, walk up to one of the windows and ask for a drink. But if you happen to look a little more closely at the truck, you may notice a sign by the truck door that reads “Department of Corrections”. And if you have time for conversation, you may find out that the person serving your coffee is a current prisoner.

On this occasion, it is Tup, whose name has been changed. Tup is 26 years old and has spent the past six years in a maximum-security prison in Khlong Phai, Northeastern Thailand. After he was transferred to Khao Khuean Lan, a more open prison, he started to learn how to make coffee.

Thanks to the skills acquired and his good conduct, Tup started working at Cook & Coff, a coffee shop on the mountaintop of Khao Khuean Lan run by Thailand’s Corrections Department. Every day from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., he serves coffee to customers, gradually relearning how to navigate the outside world. After 3 p.m., he goes back to prison.

“Some I respect like brothers,” he says of the 30 or so friends he has made in prison. “We take care of each other, but we’re friends, not best friends.”

In 20 days, Tup will be released. He looks forward to seeing his mother. If she can help him, he’ll invest in a coffee machine and start his own business.

But Tup faces an uphill battle. Seventy per cent of Thailand’s prisoners are incarcerated on drug charges, according to the prison wardens, and their sentences can go up to 30 years in some cases, the same number of years murderers serve. Yet those charged on drug offences are often peaceful prisoners who nevertheless carry a stigma that, once released, makes reintegration an often unsurmountable challenge. 

To relieve this burden, Thailand is attempting to reduce reoffending through rehabilitation rather than punishment. The Kyoto Model Strategies, adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2025, provide a comprehensive framework for the process. They emphasize that breaking the cycle of crime requires addressing root causes —poverty, lack of education and social exclusion— and not just imprisoning offenders.

“The real problem lies in society,” says Thitiphan Manuchantrarut, director of the Khao Prik Agricultural and Industrial Correctional Institution in Sikhio, northeastern Thailand. “Lack of money leads offenders to drug trafficking. If they learned the skills we teach them here in prison at an early age, in the real world, they would probably not have turned to drug trafficking in the first place. They would probably not have ended up in prison.”

Reoffending is also a challenge. “Most prisoners go back to their context,” Manuchantrarut adds. “If, instead of going back home, they are given the opportunity to work elsewhere, to change their initial circumstances, they will be less likely to recommit the offence.”

Skills training in prison offers prisoners who are willing to reform a second chance. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) works with Thai authorities to support such programmes. Making sure that changes extend beyond policy papers, UNODC also works with authorities to improve prison management and conditions.

In the prison where Tup spent his early twenties, the Khlong Phai Central Prison, prisoners – the majority of whom were poor – used to have to pay for drinking water. UNODC installed a water purification system that turns water from the lake nearby into safe to drink water.

Beyond installing water systems, UNODC’s role in Thailand included connecting prison directors with community resources and helping develop the frameworks that make reintegration possible.

The Nelson Mandela Rules

This is all part of the Nelson Mandela Rules, which represent the universally acknowledged blueprint for prison management in the 21st century. The Rules outline minimum prison conditions, provide guidance and set clear benchmarks for prison staff on how to uphold safety, security and human dignity. They focus on taking better care of prisoners by establishing mandatory training for prison officers and promotions based on their behaviour.

“You will never waste a penny if you invest in the Nelson Mandela rules,” says Sukanya Thainoy, former training academy director at Nakhon Ratchasima. “It’s basic support for officers. With well-trained officers, treatment of prisoners improves, then prisoners look up to them, respect their professionalism. This is what creates a safe space for prisoner and officer.”

Thailand’s prison system houses 310,000 people—roughly the population of a midsize city. Across the country’s 143 correctional facilities, prison managers are implementing a mindset change, guided by international frameworks like the Nelson Mandela Rules and the newly adopted Kyoto Model Strategies on Reducing Reoffending.

“If prison officers are smiling, prisoners will be smiling, then society will smile,” says Permpol Thiendusit president of the Songkhla Central Prison in Southern Thailand. “Prisoners know. They can feel if their rights are being respected or not.”

The challenge, he notes, is that the implementation of the Nelson Mandela Rules in Thailand focuses on training officers to better treat prisoners. “But what about the prison officers?” he asks. “We need prison officer welfare too. If we put our focus on them, they will have the knowledge of how to take better care of prisoners.”

Bet makes sugar cane juice in a hut placed right at the gates of the Songkhla Central Prison, in which he has been living for seven years now. He has eight months to go, and prison officers trust him to be so near the gates without attempting to flee.

“They know I like it here because I see the mountains every day, for two years now. They are not like the mountains back home, but I enjoy looking at them. They trust I will not escape. I know that.” Bet is from Sagao, near the border with Malaysia, and is looking forward to going back. Once he finishes his sentence, he hopes to find a job so that he can live near his family.

Originally Published by UNODC