In exchange for a reduced prison sentence for sex offenders, Thailand may soon implement chemical castration.
According to the measure, the offenders would be tracked for 10 years and have to wear electronic monitoring bracelets. The bill requires another vote and royal approval before it can become law.
The bill, which was enacted by the House of Representatives in March, was adopted by 145 senators with two abstentions.
It still requires another parliamentary vote, followed by royal approval.
According to estimates from the correctional administration, 4,848 of the 16,413 convicted sex offenders released from Thai prisons between 2013 and 2020 re-offended.
Under the measure, those sex offenders assessed to be in danger of recidivism may be given the option to receive injections that suppress their testosterone levels in exchange for a shorter prison sentence, with the agreement of two physicians.
According to the bill, the offenders would be tracked for 10 years and obliged to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.
If allowed, Thailand would join a limited club of nations that practice chemical castration, including Poland, South Korea, Russia, Estonia, and a few states in the United States.
The minister of justice, Somsak Thepsuthin, stated, “I want this bill to pass fast.”
“I don’t want to hear awful news about women happening again,” he stated.
Jaded Chouwilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, a non-governmental organization that handles, among other things, sexual violence, stated that chemical castration would not be effective in combating sex crime.
“Convicts should be rehabilitated in prison by altering their attitude,” he stated.
The use of capital punishment or castration by injection perpetuates the notion that offenders can no longer be rehabilitated.
