• 36 prisons have capacity to hold 8,000 inmates, but currently hold 29,000 
• 57.2% of convicts in prisons in 2023 had been convicted earlier

The rising recidivism in the Sri Lankan prison system has led to authorities rethinking rehabilitation strategies for narcotic drug offences, with the expanding rate of convict repetitions and the increased congestion inside prisons reciprocally causing the increase of the other. 

According to prison statistics of 2024, 57.2% of convicts in prison in 2023 had been convicted at least once before. While the rates from 2020, 2021, and 2022 had remained below 50%, 2023 had seen an increase with 2,435 convicts, with 5.2% among that year’s number being those who had been convicted 11 times or over. 

Repeat offenders raise questions around the efficacy of rehabilitation programmes inside prisons. However, the extreme overcrowding in the country’s prison system makes successful rehabilitation a challenge. 

Rehab as an alternative

The 36 prisons in Sri Lanka collectively have a capacity to hold 8,000 inmates. However, currently, they house 29,000 inmates in total. According to the Department of Prisons, 65% of these inmates are in prison for narcotics-related offences.

“We cannot implement successful rehabilitation programmes in an overcrowded prison,” Commissioner of Prisons – Rehabilitation J.C. Weerasinghe told The Sunday Morning. 

Weerasinghe suggested that a possible solution for the issue would be to stop viewing narcotics users as offenders and direct them towards treatment instead. 

Ministry of Justice and National Integration Additional Secretary – Prisons and Rehabilitation Affairs H.M.N.C. Dhanasinghe told The Sunday Morning that introducing persons addicted to drugs to rehabilitation programmes instead of imprisoning them was being looked into at present. Rehabilitation infrastructure is to be expanded for this purpose. 

“Community-based correction is something the ministry is considering at the moment,” Dhanasinghe said, noting that current prison overcrowding had reached 300%. These steps are also to reduce such inmates mingling with convicts of other crimes. 

The proposed expansion of the rehabilitation system is to be established at a provincial level, according to Bureau of Rehabilitation Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Major General Darshana Hettiarachchi. 

At present, there are three rehabilitation centres in Kandakadu, Senapura, and Vavuniya, respectively. When individuals are sent to these centres, their parents and families find it difficult to visit them because of the long distance to be travelled. 

A new governing council has been appointed by the Government, which is in the process of developing a new rehabilitation programme. Simultaneously, there is a process to identify suitable locations for these new facilities, according to Maj. Gen. Hettiarachchi. 

Addressing psychological aspects

Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation procedure both inside prisons and outside institutions are not satisfactory, as per Committee to Protect the Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) Chairman Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera. According to him, although vocational training is available, the psychological aspects of rehabilitation are not addressed in these processes. 

“The concept of wrongfulness must be addressed psychologically. If not, even if there is vocational training, the potential to reoffend remains,” Perera told The Sunday Morning. 

Perera claimed that coupling updated counselling methods with the process was essential in order to address a convict’s potential to reoffend.

The lack of post-release followup programmes in the prison system too is a challenge, according to Perera. “Such programmes would monitor their behaviour as to where they are, what they are doing, and how they are doing,” he said.

Recruiting civilian experts

The current rehabilitation system, however, did have mental health care and post-rehabilitation monitoring, noted Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Hettiarachchi. It monitors those being rehabilitated through branch rehabilitation officers who continue to be in touch with them and their families after their return. 

However, he said that there were plans to introduce further psychiatric care to rehabilitation in the future.

In the rehabilitation process, vocational training would be given to those being rehabilitated, where they could either return to a profession they were practising or go into an entirely different field, noted Hettiarachchi. 

The proposed developments to the rehabilitation system would also see a majority involvement of civilian rehabilitation specialists. There are criticisms that military drills and training are not sufficient for the recovery of a person addicted to drugs. 

Hettiarachchi clarified that this involvement of the military was due to the rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadres. “In the new process for those addicted to drugs, the majority will be civilian experts,” he added.

Proposed improvements 

Although they are supposed to be correctional, prison facilities themselves have become places that facilitate crime. 

“There is a risk of someone who went in for stealing coconuts returning as a drug dealer,” said Perera. He provided the example of the Boossa High-Security Prison, which is a facility for offenders related to organised crime. 

“It also becomes a place for everyone to organise even better,” he pointed out. 

Due to the lack of space within prisons, separation of inmates becomes an impossibility, according to Weerasinghe. “When a good person enters prison, they will exit as a criminal. That is the way of life they will learn here,” he observed.

The importance of ensuring that fewer people are incarcerated through preventive measures such as educational and awareness programmes was emphasised by all officials. 

In February, the CPRP presented a set of proposals to Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara. 

It proposed the establishment of separate centres for convicted narcotics offenders, strengthening of the four-year review mechanism to explore the possibility of early release, effective implementation of the Release of Remand Prisoners Act, and inclusion of appeal time in sentence calculations as immediate actions that could be taken to reduce prison overcrowding. 

As long-term measures, it proposed to enhance education, vocational training, and mental well-being of prisoners while building an accountability system and enhancing working conditions for prison officers.