One day behind bars: Thai art students work with prisoners

Sketchbooks in hand, the students walk through the rows, huddled in groups, observing the women who sew. As time passes, some lose their initial apprehension and sit across from them, picking up fabric samples. Others ask about the products they are making. Some borrow their needles, and with the women’s guidance try a bit of sewing themselves. A few check out the basket-weaving corner and sit on the floor with the women who have, by now, mastered the skill.

These students are not living an ordinary day. Today, they have left the classroom behind to spend their morning at the Central Women’s Correctional Institution in Bangkok, the first women’s prison in Thailand. Inside, approximately 150 women learn the art of weaving, knitting and machine sewing to manufacture marketable products. After this, the students’ task is to design a product that these women can manufacture during their sentences.

The initiative, launched in November 2025 through a partnership between the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), pairs design students from the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University with incarcerated women to create, together, modern and sustainable products that can be sold outside prison.

Earlier this year, 22 students visited the prison and interacted with the women who are now manufacturing the new designs. After the prison visit, the students were asked to come up with designs that had to meet three criteria: the prison-made goods had to appeal to modern consumers, they had to be pragmatic, and they had to tell a story linked to rehabilitation that would help raise awareness, in the world outside of prisons, about the critical role that vocational training plays in reducing recidivism.

“The stigma surrounding those who have made mistakes has long been a wall in our society. To help them cross that barrier, we must restore their human dignity,” said Chontit Chuenurah, Director of the Office for the Bangkok Rules and Treatment of Offenders at TIJ. “By weaving their stories into these products, we use the creativity of the youth to build a bridge between the prison and the outside world, replacing fear with understanding.”

Chuenuarh spoke at the TIJ headquarters in Bangkok during the student competition of the Prison Product Development Through Youth Engagement project, held earlier this year. Under the theme Through the Wall, the initiative seeks to dismantle physical and social barriers, empowering incarcerated individuals through creative collaboration with younger generations to produce market-driven, innovative products that facilitate a successful return to society, she added.

During the prison product design competition, a panel of judges comprised of experts from TIJ, UNODC, the Central Women’s Correctional Institution, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University and the Embassy of Japan in Thailand evaluated nine projects from 19 students. The winner? Time-Made, a project featuring intricately smocked watch straps. Time, for the students behind the design, has a two-fold meaning here: it represents the sentence that prisoners can reduce by working in prison, but also the time that day-to-day people can value outside of prison, a privilege sometimes taken for granted.

“We wanted our product to remind people that we can use time carefully and meaningfully. That we can watch our time,” says Game, 21, co-winner of the product design competition.

“The project aims to create prison-made goods that appeal to modern consumers while equipping correctional officers with essential marketing skills. Furthermore, it raises international awareness regarding the critical role of offender rehabilitation and vocational training in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by effectively reducing recidivism,” said Aki Okanan, former prison reform expert at UNODC.

During the competition, all designs received support for product development and marketing. The winning product, together with a selection of other students’ designs, will be produced in collaboration with partner correctional facilities.

Students inspire society

Natty, also 21, has been studying lifestyle products at Sunandha College for three years. She had thought that the prison was going to look gloomy and scary, and was surprised to see that the room where the women worked was so bright and airy. Still, she noticed that most prisoners used dark colours for their products. “I want to take the skills they have and show them brighter fabrics, and see what happens,” she says.

Weo is a prisoner who prefers to sew by hand. She tried the sewing machine, but noticed that her mind was calmer when threading with her fingers directly. She explains it to the students: “Your mind follows the thread, one by one, row by row. You know? It’s like meditation. I don’t like machines.” By not using a sewing machine, Weo is capable of producing a unique pattern that is hard to find in conventional shops.

Sitting by her side, Ana*, from Latin America, tells the story of how she was caught attempting to smuggle cocaine into Bangkok. After four years spent in the Thai prison, she can now produce perfect stuffed animals, and is now fluent in Thai, although she has never seen Thailand outside prison. “I heard it’s beautiful here. But it doesn’t matter. After this, when I manage to get back to Brazil, I will start an import business and sell stuffed animals from Thailand. I know how to do it. I have the connections, and I speak the language.”

As students walk through the gates and security controls to leave the prison, their enthusiasm wanes. But although the prisoners aren’t able to leave, this collaboration connects them to the outside world, the first step in reintegration.

To learn more about the Nelson Mandela Rules, click here.

To learn more about what UNODC’s work with prisons in the region, click here.

To see more photos of the student prison visit, click here.

To see more photos of the student competition, click here.

*Name changed to protect privacy

Originally published by UNODC