Korea’s first-ever privately-run prison is to open its doors this week after a series of controversies concerning its religious base and financial background.

The Somang Prison, administered by the Christian Agape Foundation, is to start operating in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday, according to the Justice Ministry.

The prison is fully equipped with extensive assembly halls, physical exercise facilities and high-tech electronic lock devices, all way above the standard of those in state-run prisons.

It occupies 214,000 square meters and can accommodate a maximum of 300 inmates, said officials.

The foundation will be selecting the prisoners among male volunteers who are first offenders with a year or more left of their sentence.

They are also required to be sentenced to seven years or less in jail for offenses excluding drug, public security and organized violence crimes.

The religion-based private prison, modeled on private prison systems in Brazil and the U.S., has been introduced as a solution to overpopulated state-run prisons.

“We believe that the participation of our civil partner will greatly boost the efficiency of the prison system and also improve the welfare of the prisoners,” said a ministry official.

The Somang Prison, however, has faced criticism as 90 percent of its running costs are to be funded by the government while the private religious foundation retains sole management authority.

The Justice Ministry will also dispatch four of its prison officers, prompting criticism the government is giving favors to a specific religious group.

The ministry and the foundation, however, rejected the criticism, claiming no religious consideration has been made in the process of establishing the prison.

Another point of controversy was that the well-equipped prison may infringe on prisoners’ basic rights to be treated equally.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)