Inmates to see prison upgrade from next month

The Government will open the newly-constructed state-of-the-art prison in Angunakolapelessa next month and will also relocate the highly congested Welikada prison to Horana, providing more room for inmates.

Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, moving the Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill second reading yesterday in Parliament, said Welikada houses 17,000 inmates out of which 50% were youths who are punished for drug-related offences. The Minister said the relocation of the Welikada prison will help resolve the issue of congestion at prisons.

 According to Rajapakshe, the amendments are aimed at addressing the delay in civil court cases. “A total of 745,888 cases have been piled up in the country’s courts of law. The majority of them are at Magistrate and District courts. As at 31 December 2016, there were 3,566 cases in the Supreme Court, 4,837 cases in the Appeal Court, 171,896 cases in District courts and 539,392 cases in Magistrate courts,” the Minister said.

 “The Government is working towards introducing a new Civil Procedure Code and Criminal Procedure Code to suit modern times,” he added. AH