Prisons policy and administration

The number of people being held in Cambodian prisons has reached epidemic proportions, leading to overcrowding and corruption, and causing families to suffer unnecessarily, claims a report by local NGO Licadho. However, Ministry of Justice spokesman Chin Malin rejected the findings, saying the rise in ...

Thai and Cambodian authorities met earlier this week to discuss their extradition agreement and strengthen prisoner exchange – a meeting that came just days after Thailand extradited Cambodian refugee Sam Sokha amid concerns about the fate of more than 100 opposition figures who have fled ...

Out of 600 prisoners at Kampong Thom prison 18 may have their sentences reduced by six to 12 months for the upcoming Water Festival in November. ...

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 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. ...

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. ...

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. ...