• New prison building constructions being expedited, unused prison buildings to be put to use  

In the wake of the Police Department together with the Police Special Task Force (STF) having arrested over 13,000 suspects over drug and organised crime-related activities since the launch of Operation “Yukthiya (Justice)”, the Department of Prisons said that it is taking necessary steps to avoid the possible overcrowding of inmates following the recent spate of arrests.

According to the Police Media Spokesman, Senior Superintendent of Police and attorney Nihal Thalduwa, a total of 13,666 suspects were arrested as of 24 December since 17 December, for drug and organised crime-related offences while 1,097 of them have been sent for rehabilitation.

Against this backdrop, the Spokesperson to the Department of Prisons and Prisons Commissioner (Rehabilitation) Gamini B. Dissanayake yesterday (25) told The Daily Morning that the Department has already taken steps to avoid the possible overcrowding that could take place in prisons all over the Island as a result of the new arrests made by the Police and the STF in parallel to the new drug and organised crimes prevention operations. Speaking further, Dissanayake said that the Department is looking into the possibility of transferring the inmates who have already been imprisoned to open prisons as a solution for this particular issue while expediting the completion of the ongoing construction of new prison buildings. He also noted that new inmates will also be located in prison buildings which are not used at the moment. He further said that the number of prison inmates fluctuates from time to time with large numbers of inmates sometimes being pardoned by the President on special occasions. 

However, he also said that the Department is currently maintaining around 28,000 inmates, a number which is more than twice the standard carrying capacity. “Currently, we are having around 28,000 inmates in our prisons. As of 19 December, the number of inmates exceeded 30,000. But today (25), around 1,000 inmates received the Presidential pardon (for Christmas). Accordingly, we are now at a situation where we need more space. However, there are some new constructions which are in their final stages. We hope to locate new inmates in those buildings as well as in the buildings which are not used at the moment,” he said.

According to the Prison Department’s statistics, the current prison capacity stands at 13,241 as of 2021, but the actual number of inmates far exceeds this, with approximately 29,000 individuals held earlier this year (2023). 

Several attempts made by The Daily Morning to contact Thalduwa proved futile.