Ground broken for private wing at Prey Sar prison
exercise and worship, but insisted that no activities that bend the law would be allowed.
“Everything is implemented within the government’s policy, and do not think that there will be massage services or other things,” he added.
Yao Chen Ming, deputy director of the Kunn Rekon, said the aim of the new block was to ease overcrowding at the existing prisons. On completion, the buildings will be able to house 1,200 inmates, including 180 inmates for drug rehabilitation.
He added that his firm was primarily into property development and this was their first project in Southeast Asia.
Overcrowding in Cambodia’s prisons is indeed at epidemic levels. In February, a prisons official said Prey Sar alone was holding 5,000 inmates, despite being designed for 1,200.
A 2015 report by rights group Licadho found that prison life across 18 centres in Cambodia was dictated by cash flow, with wealthy inmates routinely paying for better cells, alcohol and prostitutes, as well as purported “VIP cells” for well-connected prisoners.
Boeung Kak activist Chan Puthisak, who was jailed during the violent crackdown of protests at Veng Sreng Boulevard, said Prey Sar already afforded the rich and business tycoons special treatment, with poorer inmates having to fend for basics like food.
“This is like immunity because this encourages the offenders to continue to commit crimes, because when they commit crimes there is no punishment for them because they live happily and spend money freely in prison,” he said.
Duch Piseth, advocacy officer at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said designating spaces within prisons as a “good space or bad space” inherently infringed on the rights and freedoms of all inmates, who should theoretically be treated equally.