Move to accommodate prisoners in open camps
by Uditha Kumarasinghe
Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera said that there are around 7,000 convicts in prisons who had defaulted payment of fines of Rs. 1,500 or Rs. 1,000.
According to the Minister these fines had been imposed by the courts. People from poor families who were unable to pay the fine were compelled to serve a prison term.
The Minister told the Sunday Observer that due to their failure to pay a fine of Rs. 1,500, some of them languished in jail for three months or more.
The Government spends Rs. 261 daily on each inmate in jail. Some of them continue to stay in prisons as they were unable to pay the fine of Rs. 1,000 or less imposed on them, he said.
Minister Gunasekera said at present a number of religious and voluntary organisations pay the convicts’ fines and assist them. This benefited nearly 7,000 convicts who would have been otherwise compelled to stay in prison.
Congestion in prisons is one of the biggest problems. The prisons can accommodate nearly 11,000 prisoners but there are over 25,000 at present.
To minimise congestion in prisons, a decision was taken to accommodate the inmates in open prison camps instead of confining them to prison cells and also give them an opportunity to contribute to the national coffers. The Ministry has already set up two such camps in Weerawila and Polonnaruwa. A decision was also taken to relocate the prisons which are now in the cities.
The Ministry is looking for a location with about 500 acres in Wellawaya to set up an open camp, he said.
SUNDAYOBSERVER.LK
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