Care in Danger; True Prisons (Part 5)

" In the prison there was a 16 year-old girl who was sexually abused. She once claimed to feel ill with a stomachache but the prison officers hit her and claimed that she was lying. However, after an examination, a doctor found a small piece of glass inside of her stomach."

by Harsshi. C. Perera

(November 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sudarshani Priyanka is a 31 year-old mother with one child. She resides in Baddegama. On 4 June 2010 at 8 p.m., Baddegama police brutally assaulted her and arrested her on fabricated charges. Sudarshani fainted as a result of the police beating. She was sent to remand prison with her two and eight months-old daughter.

On her second day at the prison, the female prison officers told Sudarshani that she had to work although she had her young child with her. She was forced to make flowerbeds, remove weeds and clean drains and toilets.

There was a one female officer who forced every pre-trial detainee to work. Some of these female officers brought dirty clothes from their homes and ordered the pre-trial detainees to wash them. The officers kept the drinking water near the bath water, and the remandees drinking water was tainted by the bath water.

Because of her small daughter, Sudarshani was provided a room that had enough space for her to sleep. The others remandees however had to sleep in a very overcrowded space.

In the prison there was a 16 year-old girl who was sexually abused. She once claimed to feel ill with a stomachache but the prison officers hit her and claimed that she was lying. However, after an examination, a doctor found a small piece of glass inside of her stomach. On another occasion a woman fell inside the toilet and injured her head. Only after about two hours of bleeding was she provided medicine and medical treatment.

Sudarshani was in the women’s ward at Galle prison for 10 days.

(The writer is a lawyers by profession, based in Colombo. Click here to read More article written by her.