kayt67
12-01-2006, 07:24 PM
Phonthong Prison, located at Ban Phonthong Vientiane Lao PDR (10 minutes from the city centre). Approximately 63 metre x 93 metre) it was built as a refugee centre by the UN but upon completion in 1994, was used as a detention centre for foreigners and political prisoners.
A simple concrete complex surrounded by a concrete perimeter wall 3-metres high topped with a 50-centimetre V-shaped three-strand barbed wire fence. Fluorescent lighting spaced approximately 4 metres apart along the perimeter wall illuminates the perimeter. Security floodlights suspended from a 5-metre high steel pole, are positioned at each corner of the perimeter wall.
There are two separate prison blocks having ten concrete cells to a block. Five cells facing north and backing onto five cells facing south. Each cell approximately (4 metre x 4 metre).
Most of the cells house six prisoners per cell (fluctuates from time to time) and has a small dimly lit washroom containing a squat (floor) toilet and water trough for showering. The cells themselves do not have lighting. A fluorescent-lit verandah runs the full length outside each block. Police patrol this on the hour (24 hours) . Each cell has a main security door (steel bars) with three sliding pad bolts, two of which are padlocked at all times, external heavy wooden one lock cell door, two front bared windows and a raised wooden floor for sleeping. In comparison to 'domestic' prisons (predominately for Lao people) the prison is of a higher standard and does not have a 'dark room' (0.5 metre x 1 metre) or solitary confinement cell that is used for extreme punishment of prisoners incarcerated for undetermined periods or death. However, each cell in Phonthong can be boarded closed by the shutters on the windows to make a 'dark room'.
Phonthong prison is for both male and female prisoners. They are only separated when locked in the cells.
More information on torture, punishment, prisoner lists, campaigns etc can be located at the source.
Source: Foreign Prisoner Support Service Website.
A simple concrete complex surrounded by a concrete perimeter wall 3-metres high topped with a 50-centimetre V-shaped three-strand barbed wire fence. Fluorescent lighting spaced approximately 4 metres apart along the perimeter wall illuminates the perimeter. Security floodlights suspended from a 5-metre high steel pole, are positioned at each corner of the perimeter wall.
There are two separate prison blocks having ten concrete cells to a block. Five cells facing north and backing onto five cells facing south. Each cell approximately (4 metre x 4 metre).
Most of the cells house six prisoners per cell (fluctuates from time to time) and has a small dimly lit washroom containing a squat (floor) toilet and water trough for showering. The cells themselves do not have lighting. A fluorescent-lit verandah runs the full length outside each block. Police patrol this on the hour (24 hours) . Each cell has a main security door (steel bars) with three sliding pad bolts, two of which are padlocked at all times, external heavy wooden one lock cell door, two front bared windows and a raised wooden floor for sleeping. In comparison to 'domestic' prisons (predominately for Lao people) the prison is of a higher standard and does not have a 'dark room' (0.5 metre x 1 metre) or solitary confinement cell that is used for extreme punishment of prisoners incarcerated for undetermined periods or death. However, each cell in Phonthong can be boarded closed by the shutters on the windows to make a 'dark room'.
Phonthong prison is for both male and female prisoners. They are only separated when locked in the cells.
More information on torture, punishment, prisoner lists, campaigns etc can be located at the source.
Source: Foreign Prisoner Support Service Website.