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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Crime pays? by Elmo Leonard An ex-convict assaulted a prison officer attached to the Welikada Prison at Slave Island recently. The intervention of army personnel, prevented a more serious situation, from erupting. The jailor had come to Slave Island to buy opium, which he allegedly pedals among prisoners. The ex-prisoner accused the jailor of having forced his wife into submission, while he was serving a sentence in prison, and of beating the ex-prisoner unreasonably when he served the prison term. Corruption in prisons is rampant due to the poor enumeration prison officers receive, a retired jailor, who did not wish to be identified, said. "I would have been corrupt, myself, if not for the wealth I inherited from my father," our interviewee said. Today, there are 20,000 prisoners, spread through 25 prisons, including open prison camps, all overcrowded, according to the Department of Prisons, sources. Remand prisoners number 13,000. It costs about Rs 1000 per day to maintain a prisoner and the high cost of maintaining our prisons system is borne by the tax payer. Our prison system is a reflection of a corrupt society, the retired jailor said. Sri Lanka's prisons are also safe havens for underworld gangsters, who are on the hit list of rival gangs. "It is easy to get into prison," the retired jailor said. Other prisoners are paid for the time they serve in prison, by the gangster lords or illicit brew mudalalis for whom they stand in. Their families are also looked after, during their sentence. "Some are professional prison servers," the ex-prison officer said. Wedamulle, Kelaniya, in the outskirts of Colombo, an area of less than one square mile, is an example of society's outflow into prison. Among prisoners serving sentences from Wedamulle is a man who raped his immature daughter. His intention was to deflower another daughter who had just reached puberty, but found his wife had despatched the girl, by night. The frustrated father had turned to his little daughter, and the girl had lost considerable blood in the process, being common gossip. When their son who was adopted by another family, heard of what happened to his sister, he committed suicide. There is no one to help this poor family in Kelaniya, who eke out a living, dependent on their mother's work, sweeping the roads. What the mother dreads most is the wrath of her husband, when he comes out of prison. Her crime is that she took their daughter to hospital when the girl needed medical attention. Also in prison is a young robber, from Wedamulle. When he is out of prison, he prowls into any garden, or government building by night. Picking coconuts, even by day, was his forte. Remand prison is a fertile recruiting ground for the underworld. A basic lesson taught in the remand prison is housebreaking. The nuisance robber took to housebreaking and now he serves a term for contract killing. Also in prison is a man from Wedamulle, allegedly encouraged by a politician into thuggery, later, engaged in contract killing. The story goes that the man was also told to take to brewing illicit liquor. The man received stiff competition from another illicit brewer, living nearby. Wanting to eliminate his rival, the former went, to his competitor's house with a gang of armed men. Shots fired, missed. The man being hunted ran away, but his father presuming that his son was murdered, held tight to his son's rival. The father was stabbed and died. The alleged killer and his relations houses, lying alongside, were torched. Another man from Wedamulle, who was imprisoned for minor theft, said it was akin to spending a holiday. Yet others, from Wedamulle, who serve terms in prison for earning from prostitution say they have returned following foreign employment. Others who been nabbed selling narcotics, have presumably gone into hiding. |
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