As Sri Lanka celebrates its 77th Independence day today, the Government has planned the release or to issue pardons for over 280 inmates from a number of prisons islandwide. According to the Department of Prisons, a total of 285 prisoners including 6 female inmates are scheduled to receive a special State pardon. The move, which is part of a long-standing practice, happens annually, while prisoners are also released on Vesak Poya Day and on some occasions, on Poson Poya Day and on Christmas Day as well.

While offering leniency on a handful of significant days to prisoners convicted of lower-tier crime, or releasing them based on good behaviour is a good gesture, the practice does little to address the long standing issue of prison congestion in the Sri Lankan prison system.  Many of the buildings used in prisons were built during colonial times and are inadequate to meet modern needs, nor do they come close to the space requirement and facilities necessary to house the number of inmates Sri Lanka has in its current prisons system. The fact of the matter is that prisons and the welfare of prisoners have long been listed low in the order of State priorities, and as such, infrastructure development and facilities have been few and far between. Prisoners, or convicts are one group of people who rarely sees anyone speak out for them, and are often kept where the State likes it, ‘out of sight and out of mind’. However, given the volume of those in the prison system, the problem is no longer avoidable.

Sri Lanka’s long-standing focus on punitive rather than preventative measures, and ad hoc decisions by the Government for mass detentions, have also been blamed for the overcrowding of prisons. In the latter part of 2023, another prison population crisis emerged. At the time, it was reported that while there was room for only 13,241 inmates within the prison system, there are about 19,000 suspects who are in remand custody in addition to about 10,000 prisoners. The total prison population stands at about 29,000. Prison overcrowding was also identified as a factor in the recent spread of contagious diseases among the inmates.

Overcrowding within the prison system can and has had deadly consequences in the past. It can be recalled that overcrowding was one of the key issues that led to the riot at the Mahara Prison in 2020, where 11 inmates were shot dead by prison officers. Prisoners were protesting against inadequate safety measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 among them. “Inmates were agitated that more and more prisoners were being brought into the prison while the pandemic was raging. Authorities responded to their concerns with bullets,” a prisoners’ rights activist said post incident.

One of the key issues with prison congestion is remandees and those detained for drug abuse-related offences. In Sri Lanka many of those who are remanded and bail approved are unable to meet the bail criteria and as such, languish in remand custody. Over the years there have been efforts to reduce some of the bail criteria, however, the congestion remains. This is also partly due to the slow progress of the bail hearings and court proceedings and due to delays in forensic reports by the Government Analyst's Department. The other key segment which make up the bulk of prisons population are narcotic drug abusers who are pushed into the criminal justice system, as a mandatory practice without an outlet which enables them to first seek treatment and rehabilitation the first time they are arrested. Over the last two years, a drag-net style law enforcement clean-up campaign by previous governments netted over 35,000 such drug abusers, or those who were caught with narcotics which were intended for self-use, rather than for distribution. As such, it would be prudent for the Government to review multiple reports, including those prepared by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) in the past into prison congestion, and formulate a concrete plan to expand facilities, and introduce mechanisms to deal with the high volume of remandees, and to direct drug abuses towards rehabilitation and not incarceration on their first brush with the law.