Prisons

Rights group Licadho says it is canceling its annual prison visits on international Human Rights Day, which this year falls on Thursday, for the first time in two decades in protest over what it says are new government restrictions. ...

More than 100 prisoners in Cambodia have received royal pardons and hundreds more have seen their sentences reduced under King Norodom Sihamoni’s traditional Water Festival clemency, a local English newspaper reported Wednesday. ...

The almost 400 inmates held in Kampot Provincial Prison were transferred yesterday to a new facility, which officials say is better fit for purpose but a local rights group claims lacks any clean water. ...

A former inmate at Kampong Speu and Trapaing Phlong prisons claimed yesterday he witnessed rampant drug dealing at both facilities and plans to file a complaint with the support of NWRPO, a local NGO. ...

The Ministry of Interior is reviewing a list of more than 700 inmates eligible for pardons or reduced sentences during the upcoming Water Festival. ...

A Trapaing Thlong prison officer in Kampong Cham was last week accused of demanding $150 to release a prisoner who had fully served his 10-year term, a charge the prison’s director rejected yesterday. ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit on Tuesday published a complaint against the director of the Prey Sar correctional centre for women and children (CC2), alleging that he took bribes from prisoners and families and illegally pocketed government funds. ...

A remote jail opened more than five years ago to lessen chronic overcrowding in the prison system is also operating as a farming business, where free labour is seemingly used to yield big profits for senior staff.When Correctional Centre 4 (CC4) opened its gates in ...

The Ministry of Interior yesterday ordered all prisons across the country to release inmates scheduled to be freed on weekends and public holidays ahead of time rather than prolonging their sentence. ...

After nearly a year of dry taps, the water supply at Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison has finally been restored, but inmates are still being forced to pay for the so-called luxury commodity, according to those who live and work there. ...

A new provincial prison in Pailin’s Sala Krao district still has no running water supply six months after it accepted more than 100 prisoners, local officials say.The prisoners arrived in early March after being transferred from their former prison – an old movie theatre in ...

The Minister of Interior has ordered senior officials to conduct unannounced spot checks of the Kingdom’s detention centres in an effort to ensure that inmates are not receiving ill treatment behind bars. ...

Rights group Licadho has welcomed an announcement from the Interior Ministry that conditions at prisons, social rehabilitation centers and drug rehabs will be improved to ensure that the rights of inmates, patients and others housed or confined at the centers will be respected. ...

Rights groups say the Cambodian government should prioritize the passage of a law that would provide better guidance on the treatment of juveniles by the court system. ...

An influx of suspected drug dealers to Kampong Chhnang’s jail has led its director to plead with the provincial officials for help amid fears that the prison authorities will soon be unable to control inmates. Pov Vuthy, Kampong Chhnang prison director, said yesterday that the recent ...

The names of more than 900 prisoners have been put forward to receive pardons and sentence reductions during next month’s Khmer New Year festivities, officials said yesterday. The inmates were selected by the Ministry of Interior and their cases are now being assessed by the Ministry ...

In a move seemingly incongruent with the government’s plans to offer clemency to a number of female inmates on International Women’s Day on Sunday, a local rights group announced yesterday that new restrictions introduced by authorities have forced them to cancel prison activities marking the ...

Local rights group Licadho yesterday praised the government’s plan to release a number of incarcerated women who are pregnant or have their children with them in prison within the next week, but said deeper reforms are needed. In a statement, the NGO said it welcomed an ...

Prison overcrowding continues to be a major issue plaguing Cambodia, Ministry of Interior officials said on Monday, as they revealed a 3 per cent increase in population at correctional facilities and prisons nationwide. In 2014, the number of prisoners rose from 14,702 in 2013 to 15,165 ...

In an unanticipated act of leniency yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen established a new committee to deliver pardons to mothers jailed with their children, according to several attendees of the conference where the announcement was made. ...

Having begun life in an overcrowded cell with nowhere to play, little to eat and surrounded by abuse, when Dara* left prison at nearly 4 years old, he had not yet spoken a single word. According to the report, which was released on Saturday, Dara’s ...

Two of three men charged with using and trafficking methamphetamine inside the maximum-security Prey Sar prison denied the trafficking allegation during their trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday. ...

A 52-year-old woman was charged with fraud by the Tbong Khmum Provincial Court on Saturday for allegedly cheating a man out of more than $15,000 by promising to use the money and her connections to secure the release of his son from prison, police said ...

Four inmates at Kompong Speu’s provincial prison attacked a guard on Wednesday, repeatedly punching him in the face, an official said Thursday. ...