Rigorous imprisonment for life-alternative to death penalty

The death penalty, imprisonment, corporal punishment such as lashes and the imposition of fines have been in most civilized countries the punishments and deterrents against crime.

With the death penalty not being enforced and executions not taking place and whipping or lashes not being imposed by Courts any more, fines easily payable with black money is plenty in the hands of criminals and prisons becoming safe havens for criminals to live in comfort and direct organized criminal activities worldwide, dastardly crimes are taking place with impunity.

In the days gone by, criminals dreaded long terms of rigorous imprisonment. Hard labour included rigidly enforced work in metal quarries, roads and irrigation channels. On the worksites the labouring prisoners were provided only with water and plain tea with jaggery or sugar.

Today, prisons are no more places of punishment. They are recognised and designated as centres of correction and rehabilitation. Rice meals provided with chicken, fish or eggs are better than the average meals in middle class homes.

With serious space constraints, deteriorating infra-structure and political interference in prison administration, the country's prison system has taken a beating. Efforts to streamline prisons with rational classifications of inmates, enforced discipline and elimination of corruption had been made from time to time in the past when the department was headed by outstanding professionals such as Delgoda, Jansz and Dharmadasa.

However, commencing with the events that took place in July 1983 conditions in the country's prisons have taken a nose-dive. What is urgently required is the segregation of drug dealers, murderers and sex offenders and their incarceration in maximum security facilities. It is tragic that corruption has eaten into the fabric of prison administration.

In spite of the good intentions of President Maithripala Sirisena expressing his desire to impose the death penalty for drug offences and the public not opposed to the return of the dearth penalty, it is unwise to reject international opinion.

The only alternative to the death penalty is a life term of genuine rigorous imprisonment under maximum security conditions that guarantees a life of abject misery.

Edward Gunawardena.