AIS sets up shop at Phuket Prison

PHUKET: GSM mobile phone operator Advance Info Service (AIS) has set up a temporary sales booth giving away free SIM cards at the entrance to the visiting area at Phuket Prison.

A sales hostess stationed at the booth said the prison was a good place to promote AIS services as there were always large crowds of people facing long waits to see inmates.

The free cards can be used to access Internet services at three baht per hour. Other services available at the prison-promo include special rates on day and night phone packages.

Wardens at Phuket Prison have had trouble keeping mobile phones out of the hands of inmates in recent months. First, friends of inmates lobbed the phones over the prison walls in the hope of getting them to their comrades.

When wardens adjusted security to eliminate that threat, the unknown malefactors began sewing mobile phones and packages of methamphetamines inside the carcasses of dead rats, which were then pitched over the ramparts.

Daunted by the ingenuity of the smugglers, the prison perimeter is soon to be equipped with 12 CCTV cameras in a bid to catch the perpetrators in the act.

Given the prison’s stated concerns and ramped up efforts to stop prisoner communication with the outside world, security buffs might wonder how the free availability of the tiny SIM cards right on the premises would fit in with the game plan.

Prison Director Rapin Nichanon was not immediately available for comment.

— Somchai Huasaikul