Ministry spends Rs 6.5 m per day for prison inmates

Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE

The Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry spends more than Rs. 6.5 million per day for 25,000 inmates in prisons.

The Ministry spends Rs. 261 per day for an inmate for providing food and other facilities, Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Minister DEW Gunesekara said.

According to Prison Department statistics, there are 25,000 to 30,000 convicted and remand prisoners. Around 135,000 people are sent to prison annually and an equal number is discharged from the prisons annually.

The Minister said steps are being taken to minimise the huge expense by reducing the number of inmates in prisons as this situation is a burden to the country.

There are over 25,000 inmates in prisons though the prisons can accommodate only for 11,000 inmates creating an acute congestion in prisons.

According to a survey conducted by the Prison Department, re-offenders have been identified as the major reason for the congestion in prisons.

Therefore, the Prison Department will reduce the re-offenders’ rate. Under this, convicts rehabilitation programs will be streamlined.

The Prison Department has introduced a novel method to rehabilitate convicts without sending them to prisons. This program is carried out by the ‘Community Base Correction Department’ of the Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry.

The Department was established last year. Under this convicts who have received less than a two year sentence are deployed in community services in government institutions. Magistrates decide whether a convict to be deployed in community service after considering the view of the convict.

Convicts are free to attend 50 to 300 hours community service in Government institutions from home under the observation of Prison officials. Around 18,000 convicts have been rehabilitated by deploying them in community service last year by the Communal Base Correction Department, Minister Gunasekara added.