Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

This is where our community discusses almost anything! While we're mainly a Cambodia expat discussion forum and talk about expat life here, we debate about almost everything. Even if you're a tourist passing through Southeast Asia and want to connect with expatriates living and working in Cambodia, this is the first section of our site that you should check out. Our members start their own discussions or post links to other blogs and/or news articles they find interesting and want to chat about. So join in the fun and start new topics, or feel free to comment on anything our community members have already started! We also have some Khmer members here as well, but English is the main language used on CEO. You're welcome to have a look around, and if you decide you want to participate, you can become a part our international expat community by signing up for a free account.
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Confinement in Cambodia’s notorious Prey Sar prison is like “being in hell,” with widespread drug use common and prisoners subject to overcrowding and beatings, a former prisoner told RFA after being released last month.

“Living in the prison is like living in hell,” Kong Raya, 25, said on Feb. 22 after serving a one year and six-month prison term for urging a popular uprising against the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) in a Facebook posting.

“Prisoners sleep on top of each other, with at least 30 people packed into each small cell, and they smoke hundreds of cigarettes a day, with everyone forced to breathe the smoke,” Kong Raya said, adding that drug use and gambling on football are common throughout Prey Sar.

Other prisoners told him that the drugs used in Prey Sar cost ten times what they would outside the prison, Kong Raya said.

“Prisoners can’t bring drugs into the prison, though, because they are strictly searched when they arrive. So who is bringing these drugs into Prey Sar?” he asked.

Electronic jamming throughout Prey Sar meanwhile floods the prison with strong signals and leaves many suffering with headaches, Kong Raya added.

“I strongly urge the Ministry of Interior to remove this equipment,” he said.

'No ill effect'

In a March 2 statement, the ministry’s prisons department rejected Kong Raya’s allegations, saying the jamming system has no ill effect on prisoners’ health and is aimed only at blocking their use of mobile phones.

“[Prey Sar’s] correction program, discipline, food, security, safety, hygiene, and health are based on United Nations standards, the Cambodian constitution, and Cambodia’s 2011 Law on Prisons,” the ministry said in its response.

Inmates at Prey Sar routinely endure poor food, brutal punishment, crowded space, and squalid living conditions, sources have said in earlier reports. Prisoners must also bribe guards if they want to make legal filings, sources say.

Inmates in Cambodian prisons who break prison rules are often shackled or beaten, the London-based Institute for Criminal Policy Research said in a 2014 report.

New prisoners are often subjected to initiation beatings carried out by other inmates under the orders of the guards, the rights group said.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodi ... 32739.html
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
RickyBobby
BANNED
Posts: 1086
Joined: Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:44 pm
Reputation: 357
Cambodia

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by RickyBobby »

And then we just saw a report of a Barang being arrested for drug use while in prison. Hmmm, maybe they are tightening it up?

I believe it would be hell. I am not a drug user, but would likely succumb if I could help dull the nightmare.
"Dear Lord Baby Jesus, Lyin in a Manger"
sklmeera
Expatriate
Posts: 140
Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2017 10:16 pm
Reputation: 4
Bhutan

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by sklmeera »

What do they expect . They are criminals and are there to be punished for their crimes and as a deterrent to others. If you make it nice and easy like in UK people will not be scared of going to prison and violent crime will continue unabated as in the UK . 6 years in easy prison for premeditated murder in the UK . What a fking joke the British penal system is .
User avatar
cptrelentless
Expatriate
Posts: 3033
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:49 am
Reputation: 565
Location: Sihanoukville
Korea North

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by cptrelentless »

sklmeera wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:12 am What do they expect . They are criminals and are there to be punished for their crimes and as a deterrent to others. If you make it nice and easy like in UK people will not be scared of going to prison and violent crime will continue unabated as in the UK . 6 years in easy prison for premeditated murder in the UK . What a fking joke the British penal system is .
The US has some of the toughest prisons and the highest recidivism rate in the world. UK is less at 60%:
https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/adul ... shed-today

Dehumanising people in prison just makes them reoffend. Look at Norway with the lowest rate of recidivism. Six years is not the sentence you get for premeditated murder, as an adult in the UK they start with 15:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/s ... rder-cases

Don't let facts get in the way of your cool story, though.
User avatar
newkidontheblock
Expatriate
Posts: 4424
Joined: Tue May 20, 2014 3:51 am
Reputation: 1545

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by newkidontheblock »

cptrelentless wrote:The US has some of the toughest prisons ... Don't let facts get in the way of your cool story, though.
The US has prisons tougher than Prey Sar?

What have you been drinking?

People don’t fear prison itself. They fear what the other prisoners will do to them.

As for amenities, prisoners get legally mandated amenities.

Free food, free TV, free weights for bulking up, free healthcare, even libraries and opportunities to get high school and college degrees as well as trade shops.

Please tell me how the US prison system is so much tougher than the Cambodian prison system.

As for murder, what is the price for taking another person’s life? Maybe it should be just time served and community service?
User avatar
Doc67
Expatriate
Posts: 8869
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:16 am
Reputation: 8145
Location: PHNOM PENH
Great Britain

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by Doc67 »

cptrelentless wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 5:08 pm
sklmeera wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:12 am What do they expect . They are criminals and are there to be punished for their crimes and as a deterrent to others. If you make it nice and easy like in UK people will not be scared of going to prison and violent crime will continue unabated as in the UK . 6 years in easy prison for premeditated murder in the UK . What a fking joke the British penal system is .
The US has some of the toughest prisons and the highest recidivism rate in the world. UK is less at 60%:
https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/news/adul ... shed-today

Dehumanising people in prison just makes them reoffend. Look at Norway with the lowest rate of recidivism. Six years is not the sentence you get for premeditated murder, as an adult in the UK they start with 15:

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/s ... rder-cases

Don't let facts get in the way of your cool story, though.
And 15 years is the minimum starting point.

Knife murders (which are all the rage at the moment) are all staring at 25 years as a starting point from which the begging and whinging and, "he's a good boy really" wailing by their mum's can try to chip away at.
Apparently, if they have been found with a knife before or have been previously convicted of possession and/or use, then they get the lot!
User avatar
AndyKK
Expatriate
Posts: 6448
Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:32 am
Reputation: 2248
Great Britain

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by AndyKK »

sklmeera wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:12 am What do they expect . They are criminals and are there to be punished for their crimes and as a deterrent to others. If you make it nice and easy like in UK people will not be scared of going to prison and violent crime will continue unabated as in the UK . 6 years in easy prison for premeditated murder in the UK . What a fking joke the British penal system is .
Couldn't agree with you more about they are criminals who are to be punished for thier crime. But! That depends on who's law.
You mentioned the UK. I would also think most of the western world fall into the same category with human rights protection's and the many campaigners of do good group's.
Here your on your own! But if you have the money?
Always "hope" but never "expect".
User avatar
cptrelentless
Expatriate
Posts: 3033
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 11:49 am
Reputation: 565
Location: Sihanoukville
Korea North

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by cptrelentless »

newkidontheblock wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 7:04 am
cptrelentless wrote:The US has some of the toughest prisons ... Don't let facts get in the way of your cool story, though.
The US has prisons tougher than Prey Sar?

What have you been drinking?

People don’t fear prison itself. They fear what the other prisoners will do to them.

As for amenities, prisoners get legally mandated amenities.

Free food, free TV, free weights for bulking up, free healthcare, even libraries and opportunities to get high school and college degrees as well as trade shops.

Please tell me how the US prison system is so much tougher than the Cambodian prison system.

As for murder, what is the price for taking another person’s life? Maybe it should be just time served and community service?
The US has Supermaxes where people are kept in solitary for 23 hours a day, whereas even in Prey Sar you can hang out and smoke dope or play cards with your buddies. But that is just one example. Like I said, some of the toughest and the highest rate of recidivism. People only fear what people will do to them in American prisons because that is the level of dehumanisation America has in its for profit prison system. Prisoners are treated like animals, rather than humans, and they end up behaving as such. But don't take my word for it, there are multiple psychological studies that back this up, and as I said the proof is in the rates of reoffending. Do they come out as career criminals, proving your prison system achieves nothing, or do they become productive members of society? Although with the yanks if you're not white they are more likely to chuck you in prison, guilty or not, so that will slightly skew the numbers.
User avatar
CEOCambodiaNews
Expatriate
Posts: 62322
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:13 am
Reputation: 4033
Location: CEO Newsroom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Contact:
Cambodia

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Udo Sabiniewicz
Published on Mar 21, 2019
Cambodia's High-Security Prison Prey Sar. Only the Red Cross is allowed to enter the prison every 3 months under restrictions. We got some exceptional hidden footage out of it. Murder, starving, corruption.
Apparently this was filmed in 2016, but is probably still valid for prison conditions.
http://ibm24.net/2019/03/21/prey-sar-leaks/
Join the Cambodia Expats Online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/CambodiaExpatsOnline

Cambodia Expats Online: Bringing you breaking news from Cambodia before you read it anywhere else!

Have a story or an anonymous news tip for CEO? Need advertising? CONTACT US

Cambodia Expats Online is the most popular community in the country. JOIN TODAY

Follow CEO on social media:

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8892
Cambodia

Re: Cambodia's Prey Sar prison is like hell, says ex-inmate.

Post by John Bingham »

Interesting footage. I'm not sure that guy is starving, he's more likely got Tuberculosis or some other disease.
Silence, exile, and cunning.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Khmu Nation, Ong Tay and 1550 guests