Yeap, you guessed right, there are yet more words for you to learn. This time I’ll list words for what happens at the end of a court sentence.

vocabulary (คำศัพท์):

คำตัดสินใจ                         decision made by the court; legal determination

ไม่มีความผิด                      not guilty

มีความผิด                           guilty

ยอมรับผิด                          to plead guilty

ข้อบัญญัติโทษ                  penalty, punishment

คดีดำ                                  an undecided legal case

คดีแดง                                a decided legal case

So you think memorizing these terms is difficult and painful? Just hope you don’t find yourself at the receiving end of the Thai justice system. The few foreigners that find themselves in a Thai prison have described it like ‘swimming in a latrine’ . . . literally.

Ok so you find yourself in prison, but thankfully you still have access to this blog because a friend printed it out and mailed it to you through prison mail. As such, you’ll need to learn an entirely new set of vocabulary to survive.

vocabulary (คำศัพท์):

คุก                                                prison

ติดคุก                                          go to prison

เอาเข้าคุก                                   take to prison

จำคุก                                           to imprison

นักโทษ                                       inmate

นักโทษชาย                               male prisoner

นักโทษหญิง                              female prisoner

นักโทษการเมือง                       political prisoner

คนยาม                                       guard

คุ้ม                                              to guard, protect, escort, accompany as a guard

คุมแจ                                         to closely guard (someone); not to let someone get out of sight

ลหุโทษ                                      (referring to) a minor offense prison in Bangkok

เรือนจำกลางบางขวาง              Bang Kwang Central Prison (foreigners usually sent here)

ผู้มาเยือน                                   visitor

วันที่ปลด                                    release date (ie from prison)

ขับออกจากดินแดน/จากประเทศ    deport (foreigners are usually deported after being released)

การขับออกนอกประเทศ          deportation

Now, these terms are just the basics. Just like in US prisons, there’ll be a lot of slang to pick up – terms that not even Thais will be familiar with until they are incarcerated – for example, in English we have terms such as ‘the hole’ and ‘the locker’.