Kingdom’s first privately run prison would allow the rich to upgrade

[geovalin]

Niem Chheng and Shaun Turton

Wealthy inmates held within Cambodia’s chronically overcrowded prison system would be able to pay for upgraded cells at a new, privately built and managed complex in Phnom Penh under a proposal unveiled last week by Interior Minister Sar Kheng. Speaking at an Interior Ministry meeting on Wednesday, Kheng, also a deputy prime minister, said the government already has a company interested in building a prison, which, he added, had been approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

He initially said the facilities would not be “like a hotel”, though later said “we can call it a hotel or detention centre”. “The prisoners and the families who have money, they can [pay] rent and stay there,” Kheng said, adding such a facility would also generate state revenue.

read more http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national

[Goanna]

Sounds like corruption to me.

[Merylhighground]

Don't SE Asians understand Crime and Punishment?

Kheng, also a deputy prime minister, said the government already has a company interested in building a prison, which, he added, had been approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Translation: Kheng, also a deputy prime minister, total crook said the government he and his pals and family already has own a company interested in building a prison, which, he added, had been approved also been the subject of a huge backhander by Prime Minister Hun Sen who may need a luxury suite there one day.....

Sad and coming from a nation with such a crime filled recent history, highly disturbing......

[Baerboxer]

Sounds like corruption to me.

What do you expect from a very corrupt regime?

Wonder which family member(s) own or are very involved in this enterprise?

[Spock]

One legal system for the rich and another for the poor, now offering luxury penal accommodation to the few rich criminals unfortunate enough not to have already avoided responsibility for their crime. A disgraceful government which feathers the nests of its own people and cronies, and shits in everyone else's. Hun Sen exhibits the worst traits of SEA leaders - corruption, cruelty, cronyism all flourish under his rule. No surprise that a user pays system should determine the quality of a prisoner's sentence.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Read a book called Marching powder,about a british guy who started touts for tourists at the Lepaz prison in south America.Very much the same.

[Dtaw]

Drugs, booze, and prostitution galore in there.

[Lannig]

Still better than Thailand where rich people don't ever go to jail, anyway.

[Spock]

Read a book called Marching powder,about a british guy who started touts for tourists at the Lepaz prison in south America.Very much the same.

I read the book. Those in prison (with money) may as well have lived on the outside, so normal were the privileges they enjoyed inside.

[orchidlady]

Maybe a new industry, prison travel tourism- you are sentenced in bordering country and with right credentials ($$) you upgrade to this prison, maybe it will even have casinos.