Justice Minister, Harshana Nanayakkara stated the aim of mitigating the congestion of the country’s prison system within approximately two-three years, and declared that long-term plans are being made and measures are being taken including the consideration of the introduction of house arrest and electronic monitoring methods.

Responding to a query posed by The Daily Morning yesterday (04), he said that mitigating the congestion of prisons is a multi-faceted issue that necessitates a multi-faceted approach. “The prison system of the country is still the one that was built in the Victorian era, which facilitated 10,050 prisoners. At the moment, we have over 40,000 prisoners, and among them, 30,000 are on remand. Of these 30,000, around 20,000 are there because of cases related to drugs,” he said.He identified infrastructural hindrances and the rising crimes in society as a few of the root causes. “These issues are addressed in a multi-faceted approach,” he detailed. “The Police are controlling crime in society. On the other hand, we are enlarging the facilities of the existing prisons, which would result in space for another 10,000 inmates. Further, another issue is that the Government Analyst’s reports are delayed. This has dragged on for years. We have taken measures to make this procedure more efficient, resulting in it being finished within three months,” he said.

He also added that these measures and the necessary actions that will be taken to smoothen the bureaucratic process regarding court cases will decrease the period of time that an inmate spends in prison. “Not only that, we are planning to introduce the ‘house arrest’ method. Electronic monitoring will be introduced, and instead of remanding the accused, they will be observed closely while they are in society,” he said. Apart from these, he mentioned that the laws, regulations, and amendments needed to proceed with investigations without hindrances, as well as rehabilitation programmes, are also being launched.