Prisons Plagued by Overcrowding

Prison inmates with their children await food donations at Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh, June 1, 2010. (AFP)

Cambodian jails grapple with a ballooning inmate population.

2012-07-10
Radio Free Asia

“Imprisonment shouldn’t be the default punishment for a mother who steals food to feed her children”

Cambodia’s prisons are holding almost twice as many inmates as they were designed for, officials say, amid concerns from a rights group that the government is using jails as a “dumping ground” for the impoverished.

Deputy Director-General of Prisons Liv Morv said Monday that there are approximately 15,500 inmates in the country’s 28 prisons as drug-related crime fuel the rise in the prison population.

Cambodia ranks 34th on an index of the world's most crowded prison populations by country. Last year, it placed in the top 25.

According to Liv Morv, Cambodia’s prisons were designed for an inmate population of 8,500. Provincial prisons designed to hold 200 to 300 inmates regularly house 400 to 500 and in some cases hold as many as 1,000.

Cambodia’s Overcrowded Prisons

Prisonners in Cambodia

September 26, 2011
By Mong Palatino
The Diplomat

According to human rights group Licadho, prison occupancy in Cambodia is alarmingly close to 180 percent, making the country’s prison system among the 25 most overcrowded in the world. The group warned that if reforms aren’t immediately implemented to curb the prison population boom, Cambodia’s prison system could end up being the most overcrowded in the world as soon as 2019.

Licadho said that as of April this year, Cambodia's total prison population stood at 15,001, which was a 12.6 percent increase compared with last year. The records of Cambodia’s General Department of Prisons showed that they processed 6,836 new admissions last year, which represented almost half the prison population.

Seven years ago, Licadho notified authorities that the 18 prisons monitored by the group were already filled to capacity and called for drastic judicial reforms to reduce the number of inmates in dilapidated prison cells. But it seems their petition went unheeded because the number of prisoners has continued to rise, despite the absence of programmes to expand and improve the country’s prison facilities.

More Inmates Crammed Into Overcrowded Prisons

The number of Cambodians in prisons across the country surpassed 15,000 in the last year, a major bump in a system that is nearly twice its capacity, Licadho reported Friday.

Friday, 08 July 2011

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“Today, the prison occupancy stands at 179 percent. And that’s a conservative figure, given increasing evidence that some capacity figures are grossly inflated.”

The number of Cambodians in prisons across the country surpassed 15,000 in the last year, a major bump in a system that is nearly twice its capacity, a leading rights group reported Friday.

An inmate in many of the country’s prisons typically gets about one square meter of space, in facilities that are “bursting at the seams,” Licadho reported, and where people have to take turns sleeping in overcrowded cells.

The addition of 1,700 prisoners to the system over the last year marked a 12 percent increase overall, the group said in a report.

Beyond Capacity 2011: A Progress Report on Cambodia's Exploding Prison Population

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Jail overcrowding in Cambodia a major concern, says new report

July 5, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

The latest assessment of Cambodia's prisons warns of severe overcrowding and a lack of any serious effort to fix the problem.

The claims are made by the Cambodia League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, LICADHO.

The group is also predicting Cambodia's prisons will become the most overcrowded in the world within a decade.

Presenter: Cameron Wilson

Speaker: Naly Pilorge, director of Cambodian human rights group, LICADHO

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

Cambodian prison population explodes

Click here to read/download this report in Khmer (PDF)
Click here to read/download this report in English (PDF)

July 19, 2010
ABC Radio Australia

Over-crowded and dilapidated, that's a description of Cambodia's prison infrastructure by the Phnom Penh-based human rights organisation, LICADHO.

LICADHO has just released its latest prison report: "Beyond Capacity: Cambodia's Exploding Prison Population" . It says Cambodia's prison population is in the midst of an unprecedented population boom. Just six years ago, the 18 prisons monitored by LICADHO were at roughly 100 per cent capacity. Since then, the population has grown at an average rate of 14 per cent each year... and while more cells are being built, it's not nearly enough to keep pace with growth.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Naly Pilorge, director LICADHO

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CC4: A bigger prison to solve jail overcrowding ... or to send in more critics of the dictatorial regime?

Cambodia announces plan to build country's biggest prison

Aug 20, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - The government has approved a plan to build Cambodia's largest prison, capable of holding 2,500 inmates, national media reported Thursday.

Cambodia currently has 24 prisons with a combined capacity of 12,500 prisoners. Many jails are overcrowded.

Heng Hak, the general director at the Ministry of the Interior's prisons department, told the Cambodia Daily that inmates would learn skills such as farming and animal husbandry.

'One of the most important functions in government prison reform is to make a big change in prisons from a place of punishment to a place of education and vocational training centres for prisoners,' he told the Cambodia Daily newspaper.

Heng Hak said the grounds of the new centre, called Correctional Centre 4, or CC4, will cover 846 hectares in Pursat province.

'It will be the biggest prison [in Cambodia],' he said. 'We expect that CC4 will be a key tool in resolving the matter of overcrowding.'

Australia is providing support for CC4 through its government aid programme. The project's corrections adviser, Cheryl Clay, told the Cambodia Daily that the new prison would have five sections capable of holding 500 inmates each.

Clay said the vocational training programmes would help to cut violence and aggression.

'This is a way for providing some meaningful skill development and meaningful activity, and is an accepted way of creating an avenue for more income for the prison,' she said.