New Justice Minister plans to reduce prison congestion

Saturday, 17 January 2015 03:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

New Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakse says an effective program will be introduced to reduce the congestion in the island’s prisons. Speaking to media the Minister, who assumed duties yesterday, said the authorities will plan to reduce occurrences of crimes in future by

establishing a peaceful, ethical and disciplined society which will eventually reduce the number of inmates in local prisons. He also plans to reduce the number of prisons in the country. He said that prisoners are also individuals who, given the opportunity, can lead a normal life and therefore the administration will commit to introduce a system to rehabilitate them back to being productive citizens. Minister Rajapakse said he plans to hold discussions with relevant officials and religious leaders in the next two weeks to establish an effective program. Also a program will be introduced to free the inmates who are incarcerated due to their inability to pay small fines after minor offenses.