Abstract:
The research had purposes to study the opinions on the welfare provided for the prisoners in the prison of Trat Province and to compare the opinions of the prisoners who were categorized by gender, education level, occupation before being sentenced, type of charges, type of penalty, and the frequency the prisoner was sentenced. The population was 60 prisoners. Descriptive statistics used for data analysis of general information of the respondents consisted of frequency and percentage. Descriptive statistics consisting of percentage, mean, standard deviation were also used for the analysis of the information concerning the welfare provided for the prisoners, and means were used for the comparison of the level of the opinions on welfare provided by the prison of Trat Province. The findings revealed that most of the respondents were male prisoners whose highest education level was secondary school certificate. Most of them had been employed before being sentenced. For the type of charge, most of the respondents had drug charge. Most were sentenced by imprisonment which was more than one year or less than five years. For frequency of being sentenced, most prisoners stated that they were sentenced for the first time. From the analysis of the opinions on welfare provided, the prisoners found that the overall welfare was perceived at the moderate level. When each aspect was considered, it was found that the prisoners had moderate level of opinion on the the services provided and it ranked the first. This was followed by basic necessities, quality of life, and the support of consumers goods and necessary equipment respectively. All of these were perceived at the moderate level. Finally, the development of the mind was at the moderate level. For the comparison of the level of opinions on the welfare provided for the prisoners, it was found that prisoners with different gender, education level, occupation before being sentenced, imprisonment penalty, the frequency the prisoner was sentenced had no difference in the opinions on the welfare provided for the prisoners. However, the prisoners with different type of charge had difference in the opinions on the welfare provided for the prisoners in the prison of Trat Province.