Detention by the numbers
Headcounts, capacity gaps, pretrial share, and offence mix — drawn from the World Prison Brief (Dec 2024) and FIDH/UCL Thailand Annual Prison Reports. Every chart links back to its original source below.
Prison population, 2020–2024
Headcount with design-capacity baseline. The 2020 figure is the January peak before mass royal pardons; the dashed line is the current statutory design capacity. Sources: Thai Department of Corrections via FIDH; World Prison Brief Dec 2024.
Pretrial vs. convicted share
Of every 100 inmates, 22.5 have not been convicted of any crime — they are presumed innocent and detained. Source: World Prison Brief, July 2024.
Capacity vs. occupancy
The gap between what the system was built for and what it now holds. Source: World Prison Brief, December 2024.
Drug offences dominate the inmate mix
Roughly three out of every four inmates are serving a drug-related sentence. Source: FIDH/UCL Thailand Annual Prison Report 2025.
Sources used on this page
- World Prison Brief — Thailand — Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, December 2024
- Thailand Annual Prison Report 2025 — FIDH / UCL, 2025
For trafficking-prosecution data, see /trafficking. For §112 conviction data, see /scorecard.