Twenty prisoners who broke out of the decrepit Kompong Thom provincial prison on Friday were captured the same day, marking the third time this year prisoners have destroyed or attempted to escape from the jail.
Police also shot one prisoner, Phat Phon, in the leg during the escape on Friday.
During the Kompong Thom jail break, the prisoners destroyed a wall of the prison and ran out, sparking a short burst of gunfire from the police and rock-throwing by the prisoners, said Hang Sithim, deputy provincial police chief of Kompong Thom.
The authorities later captured all escapees and returned them to the prison, Hang Sithim said.
The break out on Friday is the most recent incident at the Kompong Thom prison. On Jan 22, five detainees successfully broke out of the prison during the daytime, only to be captured one hour later, he said.
On Jan 29, an unknown number of prisoners destroyed the same wall of the prison but were stopped by guards from leaving the jail after the guards fired six shots in the air, Hang Sithim said.
“Nowadays there are 164 prisoners in Kompong Thom prison —it is too much,” he said. “Our prison’s capacity can only detain about 40 or 50 prisoners. Our prison is narrow, even the animals can’t stay.”
He appealed to the government to build more cells “because the prisoners cannot stay crowded” and said the provincial police asked the court to also speed up the court’s procedure to reduce the number of prisoners held before their trial date.
