Bang Kwang Central Prison

Bang Kwang Central Prison sits on the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi, about 11 kilometres north of central Bangkok. It is a maximum-security facility holding death row inmates and long-term prisoners, and is known internationally — primarily for its severe conditions and for housing foreign nationals convicted of drug offences under Thailand's strict narcotics laws.

The prison is not a tourist attraction and there is nothing to see from outside. However, it appears on this page because it is a significant landmark in the Nonthaburi landscape that travellers passing by on the river or the Great River Road will notice, and because its history is genuinely illuminating about Thai criminal justice. Charitable organisations sometimes offer volunteer teaching opportunities for foreign prisoners awaiting trial or serving long sentences — organisations like the Prisoner Assistance Thailand (PAT) can provide information on how to help.

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Bang Kwang is known as the "Bangkok Hilton" among foreign prisoners, a nickname that inspired the 1989 Australian TV miniseries of the same name. Death row prisoners were historically kept here in leg irons for the first months of imprisonment, a practice that continued into the 2000s. The prison has held numerous high-profile foreign nationals, and international prison reform organisations have repeatedly cited conditions here in their reports.

Other places in Things to Do in Nonthaburi