Friday, 13 September 2013 03:40
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OVER 2,000 prisoners were released in Sri Lanka on Thursday to mark World Prisoner’s Day, which one can argue is the easiest way to meet a society’s obligations towards unwanted elements. The severe overcrowding and lack of a comprehensive rehabilitation system continue to be ignored as the rights of prisoners become part of the shadow on overall human rights.
Most of those released were serving sentences for minor crimes and prisoners above the age of 70 years had been granted a President’s pardon. This alone shows how crippled the justice system is since it needs presidential pardons every now and then to clean out the prisons, as it were, to make space for new arrivals.
Overcrowding is a severe problem in Sri Lanka’s prisons, with most inmates not allowed access to basic healthcare. Most prisoners complain of skin diseases due to overcrowding, with even officials admitting that around seven prisoners are crammed into a cell large enough to hold only one person.
Commissioner General of Prisons Chandraratna Pallegama told media earlier this month that at present 27 prisons house 27,000 prisoners, including those awaiting or unable to meet bail conditions. Half the inmates are waiting until their cases are heard in the country’s overloaded court system. It is estimated that of about 25,000 offenders entering the prison system annually, 43% are repeat offenders.
This is just a glimpse into the country’s massively deteriorated justice system. The law should ultimately serve all of society, which includes the wrongdoers who should be given a chance to learn something new and return to their lives with the ability to live within legal parameters.
The fact that half of prisoners in Sri Lanka end up back behind bars each year shows that the rehabilitation policies are largely a failure. Criminals are made, not born, and it is clear that the economic resurgence of the country must reach these people if they are to move into living within the law. The more people who are left to languish in prison and not allowed to lead a normal life, the more accustomed they become to violence and working for drug barons, corrupt politicians and other underworld members.
A total of 57,000 grave crimes were committed in 2010. Barely 25% reached the courts for prosecution and only 4% led to convictions. With a virtually defunct criminal justice system, the public at large has come to view the extra judicial killings as a rough and ready substitute. The public also view the prisoners as being a ‘useless’ component of society and in many instances deserving of the rough treatment metered out to them.
While offenders with money can even be acquitted of murder, there are prisoners who cannot make bail and languish in prison. Female inmates with families or confined to death row face hellish conditions of being parted from their children or in the case of the latter, fighting for basic necessities such as sleeping mats and pillows.
The juvenile prisons are no better, with basics in dire need. As a country that has supposedly pledged itself to inclusive development, Sri Lankans cannot let prisoners become the ‘forgotten people’.
