Cooldude wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:42 am A good pizza and some cash would probably be much appreciated.

BklynBoy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:14 am he is in different prison

pj prison..

what can we bring for prisoners?? money? food?

Captain Bonez wrote: ↑Wed Aug 01, 2018 6:39 pm Visiting Prey Sar Prison.



So I finally got into Prey Sar prison today. Jumped in a rickshaw about 1:30pm in the middle of Phnom Penh and arrived there around 2pm having battled average traffic. Prison visits are only allowed during the week. No visits allowed on weekends or public holidays. I read somewhere before online that visits are around 10am - 12pm and 2pm until 4pm. Arriving at 2pm seemed to be perfect timing for me.

My rickshaw guy (who I vaguely know and I asked to help me out a bit in case I got stuck) and me joined the queue that's outside where you have to show a form of ID. I had photocopied my passport and visa beforehand to take with me and that was fine. I handed over the passport photocopy with my friend's name who I was visiting written on it, and they scanned a copy for themselves and asked for 3000riel for ‘admin fees’ as there's about 4 or 5 people you have to go through and everyone else was paying, so i did too. I followed the queue round where you're given a form that one of the officers/prison guards/whoever fills out for you and you sign with a thumbprint. You then take that form to the next couple of people who find the prisoner for you in the books. They asked me for his crime (which I didn’t really know exactly) and his cellblock (which I didn’t know either) but that didn’t seem to be a problem and they found him quite quickly in the ‘Barang Book.’ I saw one more person after them I think who had a big book that I had to thumbprint one more time. They kept my photocopied ID that was now stapled to my form they’d filled out for me and everything was finished. There’s a big poster on the wall that tells you it’s free to visit a prisoner, you gotta pay the 3000 riel though.

I’d hazard a guess that the whole process took a maximum of 20 minutes, it’d probably take longer though if you get there earlier than 2pm as it looked like most people waiting had already been processed, and I was one of the last.

Now the waiting part. You go and wait under some shelter next to the processing area with a whole bunch of other people and wait for someone to come out and start shouting names so you can go and start your visit. 20 prisoners at a time only. You can buy cold water and fruit from the prisoners while you wait.
We waited there for about 15 minutes or so before me and the rickshaw driver started talking about paying a little extra cashish to someone to help expedite the whole situation as I was sure it was going to turn into an agonising wait. He went off on a little wander and came back saying that it looked like it might cost around $10 as he’d just seen a lady talking to a guard who had asked her for $20 but she refused, the guard went away and said he’d come back and check how low he could go, or something like that, but as soon as he’d told me that a lady came out and started calling off names from the next list which I was on, so I went in to the visiting section across the yard.

It’s slightly medieval in there. Long stone benches for you to sit on, long glass wall dividing you from the prisoners, some holes cut into the glass with wire mesh over it so nothing can be passed through, hot, lots of people shouting, and ear right up to the holes so you can try and make out what the hell they’re trying to say to you.
When I first got into the visiting section, I had a big bag of snacks, food, toiletries, meds etc for my friend. I had thought previously that I should have brought the food displayed a bit more openly as obviously closed boxes can have any old shit hidden inside it, but I thought, “Naw, fuck it.”

So I go round the corner of the visiting section where you hand a lady the bag of goodies you’ve brought your friend, she said that as I was the only one there I was lucky and she was going to help me with what things could and couldn’t be brought in. Things that she handed back to me were a pack of cigarettes, tube of toothpaste, pack of fisherman’s friend, 2 strips of Panadol, and some packs of gum. Medicine can be taken in but you have to go to another place round the corner for that.
Everything needs to be in a clear plastic bag, every-fucking-thing. I had brought in packs of noodles, biscuits, and crackers, bottle of Gatorade, box of mac and cheese, can of fish, royal D, toothbrush, soap, bottle of chili sauce and some soy sauce, and some other bits and pieces. We had to empty the soy and chili sauce into some plastic bottles she upcycled from the trash. The biscuits, crackers, and mac and cheese were put into plastic bags she had ready for dickheads like me, she let the Gatorade and royal d slide, the soap and tiger balm were cut up and probed with a knife, shower gel was advised for next time already emptied into a clear plastic bottle, noodles were opened up and dumped into plastic bags, and the sachets from the noodles were inspected, and next came the can of fish, ha!
It was one of those average little cans of fish that are sold in every mom n pop shop for 1000 or 2000 riel, the ones full of shitty tomato sauce and 2 or 3 pilchards? anywho, I’d always been under the impression that every Cambodian can at least cook some rice, open a can of fish, and crash their motorbike. I was wrong, this lady was having trouble opening the can (I’m sure she could crash a bike though quite easily) and before you know it she’s stabbing the can, banging the can around, smashing the lid in with the handle of the knife, and then it blows up right in her face with her last smash of the knife handle, it couldn’t have been more perfect. All over her face, in her hair, uniform stinking like fish. My lip was nearly bleeding from biting it as I was pretty lit at the time and wanted to laugh my stupid face off. I gave her 3000 riel for her troubles, collected my number for the bag of food and got outta there. Goddam hilarious.

Back in the visiting section I wander up and down a bit seeing if I can spot my friend, I give the prison guard there the number I had been given previously for the bag of food so my friend can collect it later after the visit, and I sit down and wait. After about 5 minutes, I finally see him and he doesn’t look too bad, been in there since June 10th, so about 7 weeks-ish, he was eternally grateful for the food and we get to chat for literally about 5 minutes maximum before the lady starts kicking everyone out. I reckon you probably get about 20 minutes to visit people there as I was busy with the food lady for about 10 minutes, waited another 5 for my friend to turn up and then spoke to him ever so briefly. He tried to tell me a name and without thinking I took my phone out to start typing it in for later and the prison bitch saw and me got mad and then I REALLY had to go.

That’s about it really. It only costs 3000riel to visit someone (well, 6000 for me today), I kept my phone the whole time, I was never searched, but everything I brought in for my friend was, it was a fairly civilised process, and I’m sure that starting at around $10 and going up quite quickly that you can probably bypass some queues and probably visit your friend face to face, I might try that next time as I have to go back to take him some books and a phone number.

Peace.

grumpygit wrote: ↑Sat Aug 05, 2023 6:41 am Sorry but only info about Thai prisons.. there may well be a system set up so you can send money to a prisoner through one of the banks.
Well worth looking into.