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Thai Prison to Stage Laughter Contest

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 April 2003, 06:00 CDT

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- "Doing time" is not usually considered a laughing matter, but the people running Thailand's prisons would like to change that - for a day, anyway.

The country's Corrections Department will hold a laughter contest for convicts Wednesday as part of a program to ease stress in overcrowded prisons.

The project - called "A Little Laugh A Day Brightens Your Day" - will award a trophy to the contestant whose laugh, performed in front of other prisoners, is judged most contagious, a news release from the department said Tuesday.

A separate competition will be held for telling jokes, the department's director-general, Kwantai Wasawong, was quoted saying.

Particularly tense and mentally-ill prisoners will be encouraged to take part, said Sorasith Jongcharoen, director of the Special Rehabilitation Center in Pathum Thani on the outskirts of Bangkok, where the event will be held.

The laughter competition is the latest in a series of measures promoted by the authorities to attempt to ease stress among prisoners.

Other officially sanctioned activities have included meditation, choir singing, cooking lessons and soccer tournaments.

The country's 132 prisons, designed to hold 100,000 inmates, are currently jammed with more than 250,000 prisoners. There has been an influx of prisoners in recent years convicted of drug offenses.

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