Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara says Sri Lanka’s prisons are holding around four times the number of inmates they were designed to accommodate, as the Government looks at legal reforms and technology-based alternatives such as house arrest to tackle severe overcrowding.
Speaking at the opening of the new Pugoda Court Complex on Friday (24), Nanayakkara said the country’s prisons have capacity for 10,375 inmates but are currently accommodating approximately four times that number.
He said the Government was working on legal amendments and considering technological measures, including house arrest, as alternatives to imprisonment in appropriate cases.
The Minister identified delays in Government Analyst reports as a major contributor to prison congestion, saying faster reports could help reduce the remand prison population by nearly half.
According to Nanayakkara, measures have been taken to increase the capacity of the Government Analyst’s Department to issue around 1,500 to 2,000 reports a month.
He said the Government was also providing additional human resources and other facilities to strengthen the department and improve its efficiency.
Nanayakkara said one of the biggest challenges facing Sri Lanka’s justice system was the large backlog of cases, which needed to be reduced quickly to a level manageable for judges.
He noted that developed countries have around 40 to 60 judges per one million people, while Sri Lanka has only around 10 judges per million.
The Minister said the Government was supporting measures initiated by the Chief Justice to reduce the case backlog, while facilities were also being provided to increase the number of courts in Colombo, where a significant number of pending cases are concentrated.
Referring to the recent incident at the Negombo Prison, Nanayakkara said certain groups were creating challenges to efforts to improve the justice system and that necessary measures had already been taken to respond to such incidents.
Meanwhile, the newly opened three-storey Pugoda Court Complex includes a District Court, Magistrate’s Court, Legal Aid Centre, Community Corrections Office and Probation Office.
The project, initially estimated at Rs. 441 million in 2018, has an estimated completion cost of Rs. 882.5 million, according to the Ministry. Around Rs. 585 million has been spent on the project so far.
Construction commenced in 2020 but was subsequently disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis before work resumed under the current Government.
The complex has also been equipped with an electronic case management system under Sri Lanka’s e-Court digitalisation programme, while arrangements are being made to provide modern video facilities for audiovisual evidence.
Nanayakkara said the Government would continue working with the judiciary and legal community to establish a more efficient and effective justice system and strengthen the rule of law. (Newswire)