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| Sunday, 27 June 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Q: As the Minister of Justice what sort of Prison reforms do you plan to introduce? A: Prison is one of the important subjects under my purview. Earlier it was under the Ministry of Internal Security. There are about 25,000 prisoners in various prisons. Of them, a majority are remand prisoners. A large number of persons have been convicted for minor offences. Some of them are also serving default sentences for non payment of fines. I have to focus attention in these issues. Q: The Government Analyst's Department is partly responsible for laws delays. How are you going to rectify this? A: Yes. Improving the Government Analyst's Department is another major task I have undertaken. It is true that this Department is partly responsible for laws delays. Some cases are dragging for more than 15 years as a result. We must take action to dispose these cases. I believe everyone in the Ministry will cooperate with me in the arduous task. Q: How do you intend to minimise laws delays? A: We have increased the number of Courts. Efficiency of the Government Analyst's Department will be improved to issue reports as early as possible to facilitate the early disposal of cases. There is a move to decentralise the functions of the Court of Appeal. About 10,000 cases are held up in the Court of Appeal. Q: How many reports are held up in the Department? A: There are about 23,000 reports. Q: What early action can you take to issue those reports? A: There is a dearth of trained personnel in the Government Analyst's Department. Therefore, action will be taken to increase the cadre. We have already requested the Public Management Committee to enhance the cadre and also to computerise the functions of the department? I want to decentralise the functions of the Government Analyst's Department. Because, reports on alcohol and food can be done at provincial level. These actions will speed up disposing of cases early. Some items are sent all the way from Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa which delays the administration of justice. The Judicial Service Commission is taking steps to address these problems with the cooperation of Judges and the staff with a move to dispose cases early. Q: The previous Government had an idea to reintroduce the Death Penalty. Do you plan to implement it? A: The previous Government did not decide to implement the Death Penalty but they favoured the idea for public discussion. This was even debated in Parliament allowing the MPs to express their views freely. Political parties also did not take any decision in this regard. As long as this decision is not taken, the Death Sentence will not be reintroduced. Q: Recently some prisoners got onto the roof of the prison and threatened a fast unto death demanding that their sentences be relaxed. If prisoners are allowed to behave in this manner how can you maintain law and order? A: They should not be allowed to take the law into their hands and behave like that. There should be discipline in prison camps. After that incident, we are examining their grievances. I have appointed a committee to report reasons which led to their behaviour. Once the Committee hands over the report, I will take action. Q: Conditions of prisons are in a pathetic state. How do you propose to remedy that? A: We have drafted plans to improve the conditions of prisons. As a part of that project, we will increase the number of open prison camps to rehabilitate persons who have been convicted for minor offences. These open camps will help them to engage in vocations to enhance their skills and gain employment after they complete their sentences. As a first step, we are making arrangements to shift the Bogambara Prison to Pallekele. Land has already been acquired for this project. We are trying to obtain foreign assistance to complete this task. After shifting the Bogambara Prisons we will focus attention on Welikada Prisons. This idea had been there for many years although proper measures have not been taken to implement it. The land for the project had also been acquired long ago. Q: How do you hope to fund this project? A: So many institutions under the Ministry of Justice were developed with financial assistance from the Chinese Government. Recently the Chinese Ambassador met me on this issue and agreed to extend his cooperation for this project in consultation with his Government. Q: How many open prison camps are there in the country? A: At the moment there are four or five. I have instructed my officers to identify places where we can start open prison camps. Q: Rehabilitation of prisoners as useful citizens is a priority of the Prison Authorities. Do you have any plans in this regard? A: Various new methods are used to administer prisons. Certainly, we have to follow new methods. I am still new to this place and I have the idea of introducing new concepts like in other countries. Q: Recently vegetables have been bought from out side when prisoners grow vegetables for their consumption. Why is it? A: Vegetables are grown in Open Prison Camps like Pallekele. This incident had happened at the Welikada Prison. Vegetables are being purchased with other food items from the contractor. It was a decision of the previous administration and I believe it is a very unfair decision. Most of the vegetable grown in Pallekele go to waste. I have instructed officers to purchase vegetables from open prison camps in future. Q: Organised crimes are increasing in the country. What are your plans to curb them? A: Already there is a Bill in this regard. But some have reservation on certain provisions in the Bill as it could be abused by the law enforcement authorities to harass people. Therefore, this has to be considered in the light of those objections. |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Justice Minister
John Seneviratne in an interview with our Staff
Reporter JAYANTHA SRI NISSANKA stresses on the need to decentralise the
Government Analyst's Department to rid the backlog of cases before Court
and outlines his plans to set up open prison camps. Excerpts of the
interview:
