Wardens at Prey Sar prison are assigning inmates to dig canals and divert the flow of a nearby river to combat water shortages at the jail, a solution that some call inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Working about three hours per day, the inmates started digging troughs last week in the direction of Prek Tnoat River, said Samkol Sokhan, director of the Interior Ministry’s Prison Department.
“The prisoners are digging those canals so that we can have water. If we don’t use them to do this labor, we will have to spend money to hire workers,” he said.
But some human rights advocates say forcing inmates to do hard physical labor infringes on their legal rights.
“Digging canals like that is difficult work, and we can’t allow for them to do this,” said Kek Galabru, founder of local rights group Licadho, which regularly inspects conditions inside the country’s prisons. “Prisoners can only be asked to do light work like growing vegetables and cleaning dishes, or vocational training.”
Ham Sun Rith, Licadho’s supervisor for Prey Sar, said he was unaware of the new policy and that its legality could hinge on the intensity of the labor.
The prison, which houses about 1,500 inmates, has faced chronic water shortages since it opened almost five years ago.
Located about 20 km outside the capital, the prison is not connected to any central water supply—a disadvantage foreseen by many when the government accepted the site in 1999 in a land exchange deal with the Sokimex company.
A pool at the site can hold up to 400,000 cubic meters of water but dries up after the rainy season, said Kim Sarin, head of Prey Sar prison. Both he and Samkol Sokhan defended the new policy as a way of supplementing the prison’s insufficient water supply.
“There is nothing wrong with this because their verdict includes detention and hard labor,” Samkol Sokhan said.
Added Kim Sarin: “We don’t pay them, but we provide them with some pure water and some bread for their work.”
