by Harshi C. Perera
(November 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Jagath Munesinghe is the father of three children. He is a retired army officer.
The Officer in Charge of the minor complaint division in the Galle police fabricated charges against Jagath and remanded him to the Galle prison where he was put into the H ward. According to him, there were 400 detainees in the overcrowded ward and no room to sleep.
The prison officers made plans to assault Jagath after being influenced by his personal enemies. Thankfully, his family members and the head of the prison intervened to prevent the attack. It is very common for the prison officers to assault the detainees, both physically and verbally with filthy language.
While Jagath was in the prison, a 17 year-old boy was brought in and locked up with the adult prisoners. At night a 70 year-old person tried to sexually abuse him. There are many incidents of homosexual abuse among the detainees.
There are large numbers of sick patients in the prison. The only medicine available to them is panadol, and it is only given out after the sick person asks for it several times. The officers do not seem to care about even the severely sick prisoners.
The toilets are very dirty. When the officers force the pre trial detainees to work, they make them to clean the toilets. The detainees use the drug ganja at night. Many times, when a person who does not use drugs comes to prison, he will return to society as a heroin addict. The aim of remanding these pre trial detainees in a prison is to rehabilitate them but the reality is that prison often turns innocent people into criminals.
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