Private prison breaks ground
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.
Announced last year, the new facility was billed at the time by Interior Minister Sar Kheng as a “hotel or detention centre”, and would provide better lodging to inmates who could afford to pay for the upgrade while at the same time generating revenue for the state.
Chinese firm Kunn Rekon Holdings Company is developing the $4 million project and will operate the new prison, said Pao Ham Phan, a secretary of state at the ministry who inaugurated the project yesterday.
P r i s o n s d e p a r t me n t spokesman Nuth Savna confirmed yesterday that the new facilities would be available to inmates who could pay for them, with the first phase of the project expected to be completed in mid-2018. The 45-year build-operatetransfer agreement will see the state and Kunn Rekon sharing the revenues.
“The one who can afford to pay to stay there we will allow to stay there. There will be 400 people for the first phase,” he said. “The price is up to the company how much they want to charge.”
While he at first said the facilities would be no different from other prisons, Savna did acknowledge that the new prison would have bigger rooms and space for CONTINUED
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