Prison reforms to see the light of day

by L.S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

Health facilities in prisons will be improved soon, said Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera.

It is vital to improve health facilities in prisons under the proposed prison reforms. The prisons Department was set up in 1844. Prison reforms were never implemented despite the recommendations by four Prison Commissions, he said.

The Minister said that he had called upon the Health Minister to appoint a high-powered committee of doctors to report on the health situation in prisons.

Acute congestion is the root cause for many problems and vices in prisons. Over 148,740 prisoners were admitted to prisons in 2009. Of them 37,872 were those convicted of various crimes while the majority - 108,868 were remand prisoners. The daily average of inmates at the Welikada, Magazine and Colombo Prisons was around 9,000 in 2009 despite accommodation and facilities available for less than one-third of them, he said.

The situation relating to remand prisoners is deplorable. Some of them are in prison for only a day while others are languishing for years until their release on a court order. Convicted prisoners have a work schedule and better facilities, the Minister said.

He said that he himself had been a remand prisoner in a fabricated case and had first-hand experience of prison life.