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Department of Prisons
150, Baseline Road, Colombo 9, Sri Lanka

 

Sri Lanka Prisons Department has been constituted under the Prisons ordinance enacted in 1844 as an A grade Department under the Ministry of Justice. The Training School was established under the Training School Ordinance of 1940.

The mission of the Department of Prisons is the Rehabilitation of prisoners and youthful offenders committed to prisons and training them in schools under the authority of any court in the country, and research and training in the field of correction, custody, care and production of remand prisoners before the courts.

The key functions include the following: -
 

       
 It operates 60 institutions isIandwide under the centralized management of the Commissioner General of Prisons at the Prisons Headquarters, Colombo.

Table 5: Institutions under the department                 

         Table 6: Number of prisoners convicted/unconvicted
 

The cadre of the Department is 5502 as at today. However, action is being taken to fill as much as vacancies through promotions and direct recruitment. 443 staff is also recruited on casual basis. The current staff strength of the department in depicted in the table below:

               Table 7: Number of officers / Staff in the Department

The ideal cell space for a prisoner according to international standards is 540 sq. feet. However, in Sri Lanka the prisons are congested as much as 400%. Example the Welikada Prison, which can only accommodate 1750 prisoners, houses more than 4000 inmates at present.

Several strategies are being adopted to ease this congestion.
 

Decrease the number of Remand Prisoners - A seminar was organized with the participation of the Judges and the prison officers regarding the Bail applications for release of Remand prisoners.
 

Expand space by the construction of the Pallekelle Prison Complex - In order to expand space and to accommodate 2500 prisoners, construction of a Prison Complex in Pallekella is proposed. The inmates of the Bogambara prison also will be accommodated in this Complex. The assistance of the Ministry of Finance is sought to identify funding through external financing.
 

Security risks in transporting remanded persons and providing additional space in Remand prisons:  It is proposed to construct new buildings in Jaffna (new Prison), Vavuniya (Converting the Lockup to a Remand prison) Maho, Wariapola, Weerawila and Homagama (Watareka).
 

Inmates serving sentences are trained in agriculture, masonry, carpentry, tailoring, brush making, computer science, tinkering, printing, soap manufacture, baking, coir work, brick making, motor mechanism and other outdoor vocations. Products manufactured during such training are used to cater to the needs and orders of the department and other institutions and become a source of income to the government. Income received by sales as at 30th September 2005 is Rs. 39,841, 603.

Labour for the technical and agricultural industries is obtained by employing convicted prisoners whereby they are provided a proper industrial training in such fields. Statistics of convicted (a type) prisoners and unconvicted (b type) suspects remanded during the period are 22,904 and 60,484 respectively.

Table 8: Direct Admissions to prisons & Training Schools

(a type) prisoners and (b type) unconvicted                

At present training of prisoners on agricultural and industrial fields had been expanded to areas such as   Production and sale of  Cement Blocks, Coffins, additional items in the bakery, candles, aluminum plates & cups and officers’ tie (Walikada Prison), Coir products, Sewing works (Anuradhapura Prison) , Coir work, Envelopes, Medicine sachets, Blacksmithy (Work Camp, Padukka and Wataraka). Brick making (Weerawila). Sewing Center at Kegalle. Fertilizer from Garbage at Taldeniya Youthful Offenders’ Center. Coir products center at Wariapola, The Bogambara Prison supplied all woodwork items required for the New Court Complex, Gatambe. Kandy.

Arrangements have been made to repair furniture of all courts in the island from the prison workshops.
 

Procedure of releasing prisoners on License Scheme following a comprehensive investigation by the License Board appointed by the Hon. Minister in charge has rendered enormous service to prisoners mentally and physically. The possibility to serve the balance term of imprisonment imposed by court in open society under supervision and accountability helps save the prisoner maintenance outlay while generating the feasibility of reforming prisoners to be useful citizens under the guidance of the Welfare Officers of the Department. From January to September 2005, number of prisoners produced before License Board was 177 and the number released was 117.

           Table 9: Number Released on License
 

The purpose of the program is to subject the jailed drug addicts to a permanent curative and rehabilitation process under the supervision of the Department and reintroduce them to the society as useful citizens. The centers for this purpose are in operation at Mahara, Anuradhapura, Weerawila, Wataraka, Boosa, Taldena, and Kuruwita, Dalupotha and Navodha Centre at Pallekelle. Special discussion sessions with the families are also conducted.
 

Literacy classes are conducted for inmates of 15 prison institutions in the island. In these classes lessons are conducted for those prisoners who cannot read or write. Informal Education section of the Department of Education conducts classes in the prisons. Some of these prisoners are prepared for OL and AL examinations. English classes are also conducted at Bogambara, Welikada and Mahara.

Table 10: Number of prisoners (convicted) according to Literacy