To Ease PRISONS Congestion — Home Arrest to be Introduced in Sri Lanka

It has been revealed in a parliament session government is to introduce House-Arrest procedure that is been implemented – practiced within many developed countries either as a temporary solution or as a permanent solution but only for minor crimes categorized by Sri Lankan penal code that yet to be identified.

State Minister of Justice and Prisons, Anuradha Jayaratne has revealed these suggestions as he was been questioned regarding over crowding been taken place on all Sri Lankan prisons by the parliamentarian Imran Maharoof.

He further stresses as a solution to address overcrowding of Sri Lanka’s prisons where all of them are operating well above their recommended capacity as data reveals.

The maximum number of inmates Sri Lankan prison system can be housed is roughly around 13000 inmates, but as of now we houses well over 29 000 inmates.

As a solution to address this ever more growing crisis government is considering “prisoners to be put on house arrest as a long term effective solution while at the same instance has to reevaluate penal code system to categorize as to which types of crimes and convicts to be considered as minor criminals and minor crimes that will qualify them to be put on house arrest.

Minister further added a special committee has to be established to looking into pardoning to be granted for specific types of crimes and also a proper mechanism to oversee it’s implementation.

Editor Note : It has to be said that implementation of electronic tagging do costs a considerable amount of investment and resources from many fronts and at it’s initial implementation all of that had to be allocated by the government. It is not clear exactly how will the government at it’s present state under so mush financial strain would manage to allocate necessary investments. Because this is one investment the government will receive Zero financial benefit.