Park may have larger cell, but lights out at 9

SEOUL — Dressed in the green jumpsuit of undertrials, ousted Republic of Korea’s president Park Geun-hye’s days at the Seoul Detention Center will start at 6:30 am and end at 9 pm.

The only privilege the 65-year-old could have over other inmates will be slightly more space and a toilet and shower in an adjoining room, rather than within her cell, former correctional and prosecution officials said.

An official at the detention center said she was assigned a single cell but declined to provide further details.

The Constitutional Court upheld her impeachment for conspiring with longtime friend Choi Soon-sil to raise millions of dollars for foundations from the country’s conglomerates.

Park and Choi both deny wrongdoing.

Park was driven to the detention center on the outskirts of Seoul just before dawn on Friday after a district court approved prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant. Ashen-faced and flanked by two female officers in the back seat of a black sedan, Park’s hair was down, apparently because she had removed the hairpins that held her hair in her trademark chignon style.

At the center, she went through an ID check and a simple health examination, and correctional officers took a mugshot, as they do with other inmates.

Park will be held in detention for up to 20 days.

As a former president, she will likely be assigned a cell that will be larger than the 6.6 square-meter solitary units occupied by others accused of wrongdoing in the same scandal, including Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong.

“I think Park would stay in a better facility,” said Kim Kyung-soo, a retired prosecutor. “And she will use a bigger cell than those of others.”

Apart from the cell, Park will be subject to the same rules on everything from meals to room inspections, former prosecutors and prison officials said.

That includes rising at about 6:30 am and going to bed at around 9 pm, and being allowed to watch television during the day but only a single channel with pre-recorded programs authorized by the Justice Ministry.

Rice and cabbage

The Korea Correctional Service, which operates the country’s prisons and detention centers, lists a rotating set of meals that provide 2,500 calories a day.

On Friday, Park was served a simple lunch of rice with bean sprouts, kimchee, cabbage stew and seaweed that costs $1.30, the prison’s food table showed.

One of the privileges Park will have to give up if arrested will be getting her hair coiffed in the chignon style.

Inmates have access to hairdressers inside but services are limited to cutting hair. Cosmetics at the detention center commissary are limited to the basics, like toner and lotion. Hair dye is also unavailable.

Park will not be allowed to keep hairpins, lawyers who know about the country’s correctional system said.