Prisons

Provincial prison chief Tin Sovanny said five prisoners had sawed off the bars of their prison cell at 3am on Saturday, using a blade they had kept hidden in their cells. One prisoner was found hiding in the forest near the prison, but the remaining ...

A Banteay Meanchey woman is planning to file a complaint against the provincial prison director for his alleged role in the suspicious death of her stepdaughter on Saturday. Khon Thy said her stepdaughter, Sok Chanthan, 27, had suffered from chronic asthma since she was 7 years ...

Ground was officially broken yesterday on a new facility at Prey Sar prison that will soon enable the upper crust of the Kingdom’s underworld to buy their way out of overcrowded jails and into the relative luxury of a privately run institution. ...

The chief of the Banteay Meanchey provincial prison has denied allegations of inmate torture, amid calls from a local rights official for an investigation. Prison director Oung Siphan, through a clarification letter issued on Monday, challenged a foreign radio broadcast that alleged provincial prison officials tortured ...

Inmates at Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh will no longer be able to listen to the radio, according to a social media post by a jailed opposition member, which is an apparent violation of the law. ...

Cambodia’s already swollen prison population leapt by more than 20 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Interior’s annual report, which acknowledged the influx has caused “serious challenges” with overcrowding, and revealed one-third of inmates are in pre-trial detention. ...

Cambodia’s incarceration rate has doubled in the past 10 years, according to statistics obtained from the General Department of Prisons. Department spokesman Nouth Savna said that in 2006 there were just 9,634 people behind bars; as of earlier this week, that figure had increased 125 ...

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been asked to investigate cases of mistreatment of Cambodian migrant workers imprisoned in foreign jails, the Foreign Ministry announced this week. ...

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is willing to offer assistance in future prison building projects, and in the preparation of prison management policies that are in line with international standards, the National Police website said on Tuesday. According to the website, the ICRC ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday confirmed it would construct a new national facility to rehabilitate child offenders. The news follows a meeting last Thursday when spokesman Touch Channy told attendees that the new centre to detain juvenile offenders would be built following the recent adoption ...

Cambodian’s prison libraries are set to receive an extra $600,000 in funding from the French Agency for Development and literacy NGO Sipar, according to a statement released yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Justice has announced that Royal pardons and reductions of prison sentences have been pushed back to Visak Bochea Day in May, as a result of prisons not offering enough information about potential candidates. ...

The Ministry of Justice has announced it is unlikely that any Royal pardons granting inmates amnesty or reductions in prison sentences will be given ahead of the Khmer New Year, according to a ministry spokesman yesterday. ...

The government is considering candidates who are eligible for Royal pardons and sentence reductions ahead of Khmer New Year. Nut Savenea, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Prisons, said discussions about pardons are ongoing. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng announced yesterday that his ministry plans to construct a prison capable of holding 7,000 inmates on an 800 hectare plot of land in Pursat province. ...

The Health Ministry has yet to respond to a request from the Interior Ministry last week seeking assistance in dealing with drug abuse in the country’s prisons and rehabilitation centers, Interior Ministry secretary of state Nuth Sa An said yesterday. ...

The provincial court in Tbong Khmum province has charged four inmates with selling drugs in Trapaing Phlong prison after police found a bottle of methamphetamine pills hidden in the prison farm. ...

A senior official from the Ministry of Interior on Thursday warned all prison chiefs and guards stop to use or not to use all forms of violence illegally on inmates in order to ensure the respect of human rights at prisons. ...

The Interior Ministry on Thursday reassigned the directors of three of the country’s prisons during a ceremony at Phnom Penh City Hall, where it was also announced that the city’s minimum-security PJ Prison would itself be relocated. ...

Embattled Ratanakkiri prison director Tin Sovanny yesterday issued a warning – but no lawsuit – against staff members who have accused him of a slew of crimes, including having sex with an inmate, using prison land to build a house and using prison labour for ...

Cambodia’s badly overcrowded prison population leapt by nearly 20 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, government data show, raising serious health concerns.The figures, released by the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons yesterday, show that there were 17,522 prisoners in jails ...

The Ratanakkiri prison director accused of a litany of crimes by his underlings has fired back, denying their reports and accusing them of drug-taking, laziness and running illegal timber businesses. ...

Dozens of officials at Ratanakkiri Provincial Prison have called for the director of the facility to be removed, citing a wide range of violations, including having sex with a female inmate, permitting unsanctioned prison labour and pocketing money paid in exchange for benefits. ...

A Vietnamese woman imprisoned on child sex trafficking charges in 2009 received a humanitarian royal pardon last month, but only after she had been dead for more than a month, the rights NGO Licadho said yesterday. ...