Prisoner wellbeing needs more focus

Colombo Additional Magistrate Pasan Amarasena on Tuesday advised prison officials not to treat remanded suspects like animals, stressing that they should not be chained together while being brought to open court.

“Persons in remand custody are also human beings and deserve to be treated with dignity,” the Additional Magistrate said after observing a group of suspects brought into the courtroom shackled in chains. “I do not agree with suspects being chained like animals and presented to the court. They are human beings and should be treated as such,” he said while advising that remand prisoners should be kept in the court cell in accordance with proper procedures.

The Prison Department has been seen in the news for all the wrong reasons this week. Yesterday two inmates at the Matara Prison who were seriously injured when the branch of a tree fell on the building they were housed in succumbed to their injuries. Several others were also injured. This prompted prison officials to transfer some inmates to the Angunakolapelessa Prison to manage space and enhance safety while the authorities continue investigating the incident.

Sri Lanka’s prison system has been marred with many issues including overcrowding and inhuman conditions in prisons and while attention has been drawn to these shortcomings, the situation remains highly unsatisfactory.

Sri Lankan prisons are overcrowded with around 17,000 remand prisoners being held at any time. Many are held for narcotic offences and bail is given only after the type and quantity of drugs found in their possession are determined. When drugs are detected, they are sent to the government analyst’s department for analysis. The GA reports take several months during which the persons in custody remain in remand prisons. There are also court delays which add to the overcrowding and prolonged and unnecessary detention of people.

In 2015, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which are also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules. Sri Lanka is among the countries that have signed and ratified these rules. These rules make it obligatory on states to ensure prisoners are treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings and for prisoners to be protected from torture and other ill-treatment.

These are rules that Prison Department officials in Sri Lanka have been well educated on but there are many questions raised by human rights groups on if the rules are adhered to.

A report by the Human Rights Commission in 2020 revealed some of the appalling conditions under which prisoners live. Prisons are overcrowded to a point that some prisoners have to take turns sleeping or sleep inside toilets while sanitary conditions are also poor. There have been numerous cases of prisoners falling ill due to unsanitary conditions in recent months. In 2024, the death of a prison inmate from meningitis at the Galle Prison exposed the danger of infectious diseases spreading through the prison population due to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

The wise words of the additional magistrate that prisoners should be treated with dignity and not like animals draws attention once again to a problem that lies dormant till some incident occurs.

Prisoners are also citizens of this country who have fallen foul of the system, mainly due to socio-economic reasons. The approach to dealing with prisoners should be a humane one and prisoners should be given basic facilities while in prison. Steps must also been taken to release on bail those who are in remand prison so that overcrowding can be handled better while more systems of parole and home leave for convicted prisoners too should be introduced.