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Negligent prison officials to be banished

25 Jan 2021

By Hemantha Liyanapathirana   Steps will be taken to transfer executive-grade officials of the Prisons Department, who have failed to properly supervise the operations of prisons in Colombo, to remote areas, Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya told The Morning (24) yesterday. This decision has been taken after considering information received suggesting that these officials have aided and abetted in illegal activities taking place within prisons instead of stifling them, he said. He also said this decision will initially be implemented in the Welikada Prison, the Magazine Prison, and the Colombo Remand Prison, and that thereafter steps will be taken to restructure all prisons islandwide. If repeated allegations are levelled against such officials, then action will be taken to keep them in the pool, where officers who are deemed unfit for official work are kept separated from operational work. He added that an office will be set up outside the Angunakolapelessa Prison and Dumbara Prison premises for that purpose. Meanwhile, in the backdrop of such complaints against officers, the prisons headquarters interdicted Mahara Prison Superintendent Jagath Weerasinghe, following a mobile phone being found in a parcel of food that was meant to be delivered to an inmate of the prison. The parcel in question had been brought to the prison by a relative of an inmate. When the prison officials who were on duty at that time sought the Prison Superintendent’s instructions to give the parcel to the inmate, the Prison Superintendent had instructed them to inspect the parcel before giving it to the inmate. When it was inspected, a mobile phone had been found, and as part of the investigations launched into the incident, the Mahara Prison Superintendent has been interdicted. Elsewhere, investigations have been launched concerning a female prison guard for allegedly supplying mobile phones to inmates of the Bogambara Prison.


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