The point is that the problems that we continue to face in regard to our prisons systems must go beyond a superficial addressing of the problem and address, for example, the question of training of judicial officers on the need to impose custodial sentences only when it is absolutely imperative.
by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena
(November 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Coronation euphoria, as one wag neatly termed it last week, has certainly gripped the less discerning among us. Erstwhile grumblers have now lapsed into what is commonly termed as the ‘if you cannot beat them you must join them’ mode. This most astounding transformation of a flawed but nevertheless functional democracy into a virtual monarchy has taken place with scarcely the proverbial whimper. The law as we see it is now at the whim and fancy of those in power. Government expenditure is without any discernible independent oversight and any extravagance may be deemed suitable or indeed necessary as was evidenced this week in the celebrations around President Mahinda Rajapakse’s second term.
Grimmer hand at the controls
So the realities are far less appealing that what this vision of peace and prosperity portend as stirring calls of patriotism ring in our years. The question is simple; in the President’s second term, are the Sri Lankan people called upon to make an unenviable choice between development of the country or their democratic freedoms? Throughout the country, dissenters (whether at the high level of government policy or at a much more mundane level of village politics), are conscious of a grim hand at the controls, even more in fact than during the days of the conflict when much was excused on the basis that a war was being fought.
Corruption control as ensured through independent oversight such as a Bribery and Corruption Commission, effective parliamentary supervisory bodies and information laws can be envisaged only in theory The possibility of a Right to Information law akin to what is now being put into practice in all countries in the South Asian region except Sri Lanka appears far more distant than ever. We are not at all likely to see the spectacle of a minister stepping down from office following charges of corruption as was recently reported from across the Palk Straits.
Ugly realities at the prisons
All norms of propriety are being discarded in our eagerness to believe the dream. For instance, the use of state resources, including public officers, to glorify a political presence is now taken as a given. The effective functioning of civil custodial officers such as the police and the prisons is possibly at its lowest. The recent incident at the Welikada prisons where over forty five police officers were injured when inmates reacted over a search being conducted at the prisons for illegal drugs is one example. News reports are to the effect that the reaction was due to the state of overcrowding in the prisons and the lack of knowledge on the part of the raiding officials as to the exact number of prisoners who were kept in the relevant section blocks of the prisons which resulted in inadequate human resource power being directed towards the raids. Failure to ascertain the correct facts from the prisons officials responsible has also been cited.
Periodically we hear of incidents of like nature and these reports are then allowed to lapse in our memory with the actual causes of such violence remaining unaddressed. Similar problems continue in regard to the detention of terrorist suspects with prisoners being being held in detention for as long as eight or ten years without even a preliminary hearing. Newspaper reports are to the effect that the country’s prisons having a total capacity to accommodate only 6000 prisoners, are at present, compelled to house 20, 000 prisoners, while the number of prisoners are estimated to have risen by some 8,000 prisoners within the past eight months.
Overcrowding in prisons
In 1997, a report authored by a ministerial committee commented on inadequate staffing of prisons that impacts on maintaining discipline, the increase in the pattern of crime and the unnecessary crowding of prisoners have been specified as some of the main problems affecting Sri Lankan prisons. The report questioned as how it is that according to the 1993 Administrative Report of the Commissioner of Prisons, for example, the Department of Prisons had a total approved strength of 5371 personnel, with only 4028 places filled, leaving as many as 1343 vacancies? It was pointed out that even at the level of Superintendant of Prisons, there were two vacancies while three vacancies existed at the level of Assistant Superintendant of Prisons. As many as 55 vacancies were shown in the post of Jailors Class 1 and 11 while prison guards were shown to be short by 729 persons. While these findings were arrived at almost thirteen years back, chronic shortages at the level of human resource power in the country’s prisons remain. What precisely are the problems that prevent an effective tackling of these issues? Is it the lack of financial resources or problems relating to schemes of recruitment or lack of personnel to fill these vacancies?
This ministerial committee, meanwhile, looked at a number of other issues which still remain relevant. Sri Lanka’s rate of remand prisoners exceed those prisoners who are convicted. Many of these inmates are detained under emergency laws and kept in preventive or investigative detention for long periods of time. Some are inside because they are too poor to furnish bail.
Going beyond a superficialities
Previously, efforts taken to impose alternatives to imprisonment such as ordering probation and community service orders appear not to have borne much fruit. Penal systems such as in Britain, Japan, Singapore and Holland consider probation as appropriate for the short term prisoner instead of a jail sentence. Community service orders have been used with great success in similar instances in those countries.
The point is that the problems that we continue to face in regard to our prisons systems must go beyond a superficial addressing of the problem and address, for example, the question of training of judicial officers on the need to impose custodial sentences only when it is absolutely imperative. No person ought to be sentenced to jail for a period less than three months, no sentence in default of a fine ought to be imposed until a non custodial sentence has been proved to be ineffective and a court passing sentence of imprisonment ought to be required to state why no other sentence is appropriate. Magistrates ought also to be held more accountable in issuing remand orders and should be strictly compelled to abide by their statutory duty to visit and inspect all prisons within their jurisdiction.
Coronation euphoria aside, surely is it not time that serious attention be given to festering problems faced by this country? Or do we just not care?
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