• E-monitoring system in the offing 

The prison population in the country has declined by around 6,000 inmates over the past few months due to improvements in the issuance of Government Analyst (GA) reports, while the Prisons Department expects to ease overcrowding further through the introduction of an electronic monitoring system.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, Department Spokesperson and Commissioner Senaka Pallethenna said that the inmate population had dropped from around 42,000 to 36,000 as the process of issuing GA reports had become more efficient. “Earlier, there were generally around 42,000 inmates at any given time, but now, the number has been reduced to 36,000. We are receiving the GA reports very efficiently now,” he said. However, Pallethenna said that the Department could not predict when the prison system would reach a manageable level of congestion, as this would depend on the pace at which GA reports are issued.

He added that the proposed electronic monitoring system, under which suspects could be monitored while remaining in society instead of being remanded in custody, is also at its final stage of preparation. According to Pallethenna, the legal provisions required to establish the system had been drafted, and the mechanism is expected to be implemented soon.

According to the latest reports of the Auditor General’s Department, the official standard space allocated per inmate in Sri Lanka is 3.4 square metres. However, for the past few years with more than 42,000 inmates accommodated in facilities designed to hold approximately 10,000, the actual space available per inmate has been reduced. Hence, prison overcrowding has remained a longstanding concern, repeatedly raised by activist groups and prisoner rights advocates. They have pointed to overcrowding as a contributing factor to frustration among inmates and conflicts within prisons, with several such incidents reported in recent times.

Multiple attempts to contact the GA’s Department for comment proved unsuccessful.