(COLOMBO) – The Sri Lankan Cabinet on Tuesday granted approval to prepare a draft bill for the introduction of legal provisions to retain suspects and minor offenders under house arrest as an alternative to remand prison.
This follows a resolution brought forward by the Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe aimed at ending the overcrowding in the country’s jails and remand prisons.
Earlier, a committee chaired by a Supreme Court judge was appointed to furnish appropriate recommendations to introduce legal provisions to keep such suspects and offenders under house arrest instead of them being imprisoned or remanded as a remedy to the congestion in the prisons, which has been a long-lasting issue faced by the country’s jails.
According to latest statistics released by the Prisons Department, there are around 30,000 inmates housed in the country’s 30 prisons while their holding capacity is only for 13,241 inmates.
At present nearly 50 per cent or even more of the prison population are made up of drug addicts and other minor offenders.
