Prisoners receiving Covid-19 vaccinations. Directorate General of Prisons
The Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Prisons (GDP) urged all prisons across the country to make an official request to provincial governors for vaccinations for their remaining unvaccinated prisoners as nearly 20,000 out of the nation’s roughly 36,000 inmates have now been vaccinated.
GDP spokesman Nouth Savana told The Post on July 13 that there are currently over 36,000 detainees and prisoners in all 28 prisons and correctional centres across the country.
“Now, we are urging all prison and detention centre administrators to write letters to their provincial governors to request vaccinations for their remaining detainees. Then the provincial administration can work with the vaccination commission on the matter,” he said.
“I already talked about this matter with the Siem Reap provincial governor because detainees in Siem Reap prison are at risk [of contracting the disease]. But we don’t know yet when they can get the vaccines from the commission,” he said.
He said vaccinations had already been fully completed at 11 out of the 28 prisons across the country, after the initial approval was given by Prime Minister Hun Sen and interior minister Sar Kheng.
“We don’t know when vaccinations for prisoners will be completed nationally. But we are trying to convince the vaccination commission to include detainees and prisoners in the priority list for vaccinations when they begin their campaign in each province,” he said.
Am Sam Ath, deputy director of rights group Licadho, said it was a cause for concern because Covid-19 could transmit easily in prisons as they are overcrowded and social distancing is essentially impossible.
“Licadho suggests that prisoners punished for light crimes be released, the judicial process be sped up and those who have nearly served their sentences be released too,” he said.
He said prisoners who should be released on bail are juveniles, pregnant women, those with illnesses and those with disabilities.
The interior ministry recently issued a call to all provincial governors to take action to prevent the disease from spreading within their prisons.
Savana said all inmates had undergone three rapid antigen tests each after the disease had spread in some of the prisons and some had undergone the more thorough polymerase chain reaction tests.
