Section 25: Rights of confined persons
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ต้องโทษกักขังในสถานที่ซึ่งกำหนด จะได้รับการเลี้ยงดูจากสถานที่นั้น แต่ภายใต้ข้อบังคับของสถานที่ ผู้ต้องโทษกักขังมีสิทธิที่จะรับอาหารจากภายนอกโดยค่าใช้จ่ายของตนเอง ใช้เสื้อผ้าของตนเอง ได้รับการเยี่ยมอย่างน้อยวันละหนึ่งชั่วโมง และรับและส่งจดหมายได้ ผู้ต้องโทษกักขังจะต้องทำงานตามระเบียบ ข้อบังคับและวินัย ถ้าผู้ต้องโทษกักขังประสงค์จะทำงานอย่างอื่นก็ให้อนุญาตให้เลือกทำได้ตามประเภทงานที่ตนสมัคร แต่ต้องไม่ขัดต่อระเบียบ ข้อบังคับ วินัย หรือความปลอดภัยของสถานที่นั้น
English translation
A person under confinement shall be provided with sustenance by the place of confinement, but may also purchase food from outside for personal consumption, may wear that person's own clothing, shall be allowed visits at appropriate times of not less than one hour per day, and may send and receive letters; but such person must work in accordance with the rules and regulations of the place of confinement, or may choose to perform other work that the place of confinement deems appropriate.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 25 fills out the content of the confinement punishment by guaranteeing a set of baseline entitlements that distinguish confinement from ordinary imprisonment: outside food, own clothing, daily visits of at least one hour, and correspondence. These reflect that confinement is a lighter punishment aimed at less serious offending. The counterbalance is a work obligation: the confined person must work under the facility's rules or perform other work the facility approves. Together with Sections 23, 24, 26 and 27, this provision forms the framework governing how confinement is carried out.
Why this matters in practice
The practical takeaway is that confinement, though a criminal punishment, comes with meaningfully better conditions than prison: family visits of at least an hour a day, your own clothes and outside food, and correspondence rights. If confinement has been imposed, knowing these entitlements helps ensure the facility observes them. Where a client is weighing outcomes, the difference between imprisonment and confinement under Sections 23 to 25 can be significant.
Cited in 6 Supreme Court decisions (2007 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 1351/2567 (2024)
- Decision 647/2567 (2024)
- Decision 7122/2553 (2010)
- Decision 7651/2552 (2009)
- Decision 1666/2550 (2007)
- Decision 5276/2562 (2019)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 326 4
- Section 328 4
- Section 91 3
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
What rights does a person under confinement have?
Under Section 25, they are fed by the facility but may buy outside food, may wear their own clothes, are entitled to visits of at least one hour a day, and may send and receive letters, while being required to work under the facility's rules.
Is confinement the same as imprisonment?
No. Confinement is a lighter punishment served outside prison, and Section 25 guarantees better conditions, including outside food, own clothing and daily visits.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 25 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 25. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-25/ (accessed 21 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 25 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-25/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-25/"><p>A person under confinement shall be provided with sustenance by the place of confinement, but may also purchase food from outside for personal consumption, may wear that person's own clothing, shall be allowed visits at appropriate times of not less than one hour per day,…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 25 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-25/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.