Ms Watcharin Jaengsawa lived too far away to visit her boyfriend, who has been at Minburi Remand Prison in Bangkok since last September for a drug-related crime.
But because of the Covid-19 crisis, the couple finally got to see each other on April 16 through an expanded programme to allow "visitations" of prisoners via video chat.
"I'm so glad I finally saw his face," said the 35-year-old mother of three, who lives in the northern city of Chiang Mai, some 700km from the country's capital.
She is one of thousands in Thailand who are getting to see their loved ones in prison via video calls on Line, a popular chat application in Thailand.
Since March 18, Minburi has expanded the programme to at least half of its 5,000 prisoners, not just the handful on good behaviour, which was its previous practice.
"I hope the programme will continue because we can see each other's faces. It gives people both in and out of prison hope in life," said Ms Watcharin. Her boyfriend was sentenced to two years and three months in prison.
In the Corrections Department's initiative, Line video calls were begun in December 2018 at a small number of prisons to assist those living far apart. But with visits banned, the limited programme is now available in prisons nationwide and has proven very popular.
"Before, it was an option to the visits. Now, it has become the substitute," said Mr Piyawat Kosurat, director of prisoners' welfare at Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi province, which has some 5,800 inmates, all being held for serious crimes with sentences of at least 15 years.
While Minburi accommodates up to 35 inmates a day at 10 minutes each on its three computers, about 72 inmates a day at Bang Kwang can talk to their loved ones for 15 minutes each on the prison's six computers. A prison warden sits at another computer to monitor all the calls, Mr Piyawat said. All prisoners at Bang Kwang, except those in solitary confinement, are eligible for the calls.
Mrs Janchai Chaiyathong, 41, who talked to her husband in Bangkok Remand Prison last Tuesday, five days after registering for the call with the prison, said: "It's a great programme that saves time and money. It helps alleviate my concerns about my husband's well-being."
But unlike visits, which allow up to five people to see each inmate, the video call service allows only one visitor per inmate.
"I'm so sad I don't get to see my father. My former stepmother was the one who got the rights even though she already left him," said Ms Kanokwan Matho, 20, whose father is in Nakhon Si Thammarat Prison in southern Thailand for killing someone in a car accident. "I really miss him."
