A Guideline for Social Protection and Assistance Through Vocational Training for Prisoners and Ex-Convicts

Abstract

The research aims at: 1) studying social protection and assistance in a form of professional training for prisoners and ex-convicts, 2) factors in the provision of the social protection and professional training assistance for both groups of individuals, and 3) obstacles in providing such protection and assistance for them. This qualitative research also studied the concepts of social protection and assistance, of professional training, and the theories of punishing the offenders for improvement and revival. The research data was collected from in-depth interviews with 10 prison officials from Khon Kaen Central Prison and Phon District Prison and 10 ex-convicts who were specifically selected and then was descriptively analyses.

The research results show that: 1) the prisons have arranged professional training program as a form of revival of the prisoners by focusing on their interests and their development of professional skills in different professions, 2) the factor in the arrangement of the professional training is the prisons with their collaborative networks such as the Department of Skill Development and the Industrial and Community Education Colleges who help share knowledge and develop work-related skills to increase work opportunities for the prisoners, and 3) the results of the study revealed three obstacles to the professional training which were the inconsistence of the lessons with the demand of the labour market nowadays, the limited essential resources such as human resources and necessities in the prisons, and the unsuitable size of the prisons. These issues suggest the improvement of the professional training programs to be modern and consistent with the demand in the labour market as well as the resources in the prisons in order that they are suitable and sufficient for the numbers of the prisoners.