With Phnom Penh's T3 prison, pictured below, set for imminent demolition, Phelim Kyne explores the National Archives to uncover the history of the century-old French Colonial facility and the thousands of inmates who were detained there.

A sense of urgency pervades as small teams of workers diligently remove saleable wood and scrap iron from Phnom Penh's old T3 prison on St. 154 behind Wat Ounalom.

Just ten days after T3’s last prisoners were transferred to a new facility in Svay Pray commune, Dangkao district, the prison is systematically being stripped, its contents experiencing a form of liberation that its former occupants could only dream of.

Once scavengers have taken all they can, demolition crews will use bulldozers to turn T3’s imposing high walls, barbed wire fences, and guard towers into colonial-era rubble, clearing the way for the latest Sokimex development.

The fall of T3 to Sokimex’s demolition will erase one of Phnom Penh’s largest and most distinctive examples of French architectural design.

On November 12, 1901, the French Resident Superior du Cambodge called for the construction of a new Prison du Protectorat to accommodate the increasing number of non-Cambodians violating French law in the Kingdom.

For convenience, the French authorities planned for the prison to be “constructed behind the [functioning] Prison du Protectorat,” which occupied the current site of T3.

By 1916, the two prisons had merged into a single entity known as the Prison Centrale, internally divided to separate Cambodian and non-Cambodian inmates.

“[La Prison du Protectorat] housed individuals tried under French law, while [la Prison Cambodgienne] was for those tried under Cambodian law,” explained Joel Montague, a historian of Cambodia’s French colonial structures and a former long-time American resident of Cambodia. “Each was overseen by a European director with a Khmer deputy.”

Records from the prison’s first year provide insight into early 20th-century Cambodian criminal activity. Inmates were convicted of crimes ranging from “simple and grand theft” to more ambiguous offenses such as “abuse of trust” and “complicity in buffalo theft.”

A 1939 registry of inmates shows a diverse prison population, including “adult males, minors, soldiers, and women” classified as “accused,” “on appeal,” or “convicted,” with a separate category for “debtors.”

According to Montague, those sentenced to life imprisonment during the French Protectorate faced an even harsher fate: exile to the notorious Vietnamese prison island Poulo-Condore.

Until capital punishment was abolished in 1904, the Prison Centrale also served as Cambodia’s execution site. Those convicted of “capital crimes” were beheaded by a guillotine transported between Hanoi and Phnom Penh.

Daily prison life was marked by hardship, with most inmates assigned to forced labor both within and beyond prison walls. Prison records note that only “debtors, smugglers, and those convicted by French tribunals or escapees” were exempt from work details.

Prisoners labored in workshops and on colonial infrastructure projects. “A large number of prisoners were sent to build a road in the mountains, likely the road to Bokor,” Montague told the Post.

Prison life offered few comforts. Days began at 5:30 AM with “reveille” and ended with a 5:30 PM evening meal.

Regulations from 1902 prohibited “smoking and chewing betel nut,” while family visits were restricted to thirty-minute slots between Thursday and Saturday.

Hygiene was not a priority—prisoners were allowed to shower and change clothes only on Sundays.

Food rations were calculated to barely sustain inmates, with families expected to supplement meals. A 1948 ration list allocated each inmate “700 grams of rice, 200 grams of fish, 150 grams of vegetables, one lemon, and two peppers” per day. Nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce) was rationed at one liter per seventy inmates.

Corruption further worsened conditions. Inmates filed a complaint in November 1916, alleging that prison guards withheld portions of their rations for resale.

“It is our duty to inform you of illegal acts occurring within the prison without your knowledge,” the complaint stated. “Prison guards are withholding parts of our rations to sell… as a result, prisoners are not getting enough to eat.”

The Resident Superior du Cambodge ordered an investigation during meal times.

Poor nutrition, hygiene, and labor took a severe physical toll. On July 28, 1903, the Chef de la Service Judiciare en l’Indo-Chine warned: “Sanitary conditions at Phnom Penh prison are inadequate… beriberi [is] taking a great toll on prisoners.”

Epidemics remained a threat. On September 18, 1918, Gendarme Theon, the prison’s chief guard, requested an “isolation ward and septic system” to prevent outbreaks of “cholera and pestilence.”

By the 1921-1922 Annual Report of Le Prison Centrale, conditions had improved enough that prison deaths dropped by 50% from the previous year. The report noted that eight fatalities—all Cambodian nationals—prompted the observation that “prison work has a certain effect on the organisms of Cambodians.”

However, the report also acknowledged a concerning rise in unspecified “psychological illnesses” affecting 530 of the 1,000 inmates.

Prisoners who violated regulations faced severe punishments, compounding their suffering. The 1938-1939 Daily Records document disciplinary actions:

April 5, 1938: Captain Nguyen Phoan sentenced to thirty days in solitary confinement with leg irons for “brutally beating another inmate without plausible reason.”
June 28, 1938: Two prisoners sentenced to ten days of solitary confinement and “dry rice” rations for “beating on their cell door.”
November 24, 1939: Inmate Co Say (#13356) given ten days in solitary confinement with leg irons for “a dispute with a guard.”
December 18, 1939: Inmate Tech Con (#13279) sentenced to thirty days in solitary confinement with leg irons for “refusing to work.”
Physical abuse was not limited to prison authorities. A 1927 document from the prison director requested the “separation of minors and debtors” due to “malicious promiscuity among the inmates.”

The brutality of prison life and its suspected role in political unrest prompted the Gouverneur General de l’Indo-Chine in Hanoi to advocate for a more “civilized” approach.

In a 1937 directive to Cambodian prison directors, the French official urged, “Apply prison rules fairly and firmly… but also with humanity.”