- Proposal made to Prisons Affairs Ministry
- Prisons currently at two to three times maximum capacity
With Sri Lanka’s prison system holding twice its capacity, the Department of Prisons has proposed to the Ministry of Justice, Prisons Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms to formulate a programme to place individuals who are remanded in custody for minor offences under house arrest instead of incarceration.
When contacted by The Morning, Prisons Department Commissioner and Media Spokesman Chandana Ekanayake said: “Discussions are underway on placing those who are remanded for minor offences under house arrest. The Prisons Department has proposed this to the Justice, Prisons Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms Ministry. However, if such a programme is to be implemented, a draft should be prepared and passed as an Act.”
When queried as to whether a methodology has been decided under which specific offences individuals remanded in custody will be placed under house arrest, he said that such a decision has not been taken yet. However, he said that through such a programme, the Government would be able to reduce the huge cost incurred on housing inmates and manage overcrowding in prisons, and added that the Ministry and the Legal Draftsman's Department will take the necessary steps to formulate the same.
Meanwhile, State Minister of Justice and Prison Affairs Anuradha Jayaratne had told the media on 8 January that drug addicts would be placed under house arrest and rehabilitated by probation officers. Claiming that 65% of prisoners are drug addicts, he had said that it is therefore not possible to rehabilitate them all in prisons.
On an earlier occasion, Ekanayake said that the Prisons Department was planning to implement a prison reform programme under a five-year plan. Under this programme, he said, priority would be given to reducing prison congestion, and added that short-, medium-, and long-term solutions, including the house arrest system, had already been proposed to reduce prison congestion under the said programme.
The Department of Prisons had pointed out in late November 2022 that the number of inmates incarcerated for various charges has steadily increased since the beginning of 2022, at every prison in the island, with the entire prison system holding more than 26,000 inmates, among whom 16,000 are suspects.
Ekanayake had further emphasised that although the maximum number of inmates that can be held in the prisons system of the island is around 13,200, the prisons were holding twice that capacity as at November 2022, while some prisons had exceeded this capacity by 300%.