|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Is the Prison System falling apart ? by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE The Prisons Department is very much in the news these days. But not all the news is positive. A junior prison guard who attempted to smuggle in a cellular mobile phone, a charger and some narcotics concealed in four packets of cigarettes was nabbed inside the Welikada prisons by prison officials two weeks ago. In a separate incident, a bomb and a gun was also allegedly smuggled inside the Magazine prison to assassinate an important person. The incident while shaking up apparent complacency of correctional officers, also brought into question the safety of prison and the effectiveness of the correctional system. If prison officials are caught conniving with common criminals, what's the point in incarcerating offenders as a punishment, many wondered. The incidence also gave credence to the long held suspicion of senior prison officials that underworld bosses serving long term sentences were involved in smuggling of drugs and carrying on with their criminal activities with the connivance of lower grade prison officials. The incidents prompted the Commissioner General of Prisons Rumi Marzook to appoint a team of 20 Prison officials to investigate nefarious activities taking place within the confines of prisons. It also prompted him to write to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) seeking assistance from the CID to investigate the alleged claim that a bomb and a hand gun was smuggled inside the Magazine Prison and transfer the Magazine Prison Superintendent to Colombo Remand Prison (CRP) with immediate effect, till investigations are over. OIC Vice, Borella Police stations's Inspector H.D. Piyapala who investigated the incident said that the police on a tip off, arrested a prison guard perched on top of a watch tower at the Magazine Prison Borella with four packets of Ganja concealed in four empty packets of cigarettes with some heroin, a cellular phone, a phone charger with some wiring. He said that according to the Prison Guard, a visitor who came to the Magazine Prison to meet a prisoner had given the parcel to him to be collected later as he could not meet a Prisoner at the visitors gallery. However others claim seeing a man arriving in a three-wheeler at the Magazine prison with a parcel and taking it inside the prison complex after receiving a signal from the prison guard on duty atop the watch tower. The Prison guard was later arrested with the stuff and produced before the Maligakanda Magistrate, who remanded him till investigations are completed. The Ganja with heroin and the other accessories have been sent to the Government Analyst Department for a report. Coincidently in a similar incident last year, the Police Narcotics Bureau sleuths nabbed a drug peddler who attempted to hand over 95 grams of heroin to a prison guard at the Welikada Prison canteen. Three prison guards linked to the racket were interrogated by the PNB. However the Prison Commissioner was later to hold a separate inquiry into the incident. Meanwhile the Commissioner General, Marzook has proposed setting up of a Close Circuit Television (CCTV) network in the Welikada and Magazine Prison complexes to keep a close tab on the activities of Prison officials. He said a CCTV system would help keep an eye on errant prison officials and their activities. "We have sought the Interior Ministers approval for setting up such a project in the Welikada and the Magazine Prison, initially." he said. The Colombo Crime Bureau's (CCB) SSP, Sarath Lugoda said that many underworld bosses serving sentences were responsible for directing big time crime from jails. In a recent extortion case, a gang had taken their victim, a businessman before a underworld boss serving a jail sentence who threatened him and ordered him to pay up or face the consequences. He said those who run foreign employment agencies and other business often become victims of underworld gangs as they deal with large amounts of cash. SSP Lugoda said underworld bosses often give directions from their jails to their henchmen via cellar phones. That may be the reason why they attempt to smuggle in cellular phones to jails, he said. He said many gangs operate as distinct families and owe their allegiance to their bosses. When a fellow underworld member is incarcerated, his family is even looked after by their bosses. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
