About Cambodian Prisons
There are 26 prisons in Cambodia, housing a total of 11,000 inmates. Approximately half of these inmates are incarcerated in four main prisons, 3 of these on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. The remaining 22 are scattered around other provinces. However, the prison population is growing placing huge demand on already strained Government funding in this area.
A growing prison population means a more overcrowded prison, which leads to security risks, which leads to less exercise for prisoners which in turn leads to unrest in prisons. The Cambodian government, while it comes under regular fire, is beginning to deal with the problems facing them, and are slowly opening up their prisons to organisations like PFC who are able to provide services that the Government cannot currently afford.
A new 'model' prison near Phnom Penh is in stage three of development, and is based on a rehabilitative structure that attempts to assist prisoners throughout their sentence cycle. PFC is excited to be a part of bringing some of the necessary services required as a part of this into being, such as education, counselling, rehabilitation, and reintegration services.