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46.6% of convicts in 2015 from Colombo District
View(s):The majority of the 24,086 convicts directly admitted to Sri Lanka’s jails in 2015 were married men between 30 and 40 years, who had passed Grade 8, and with no previous convictions, while just 759 of them were women.
The largest percentage of direct admissions (46.6%) was from the Colombo District, according to the latest data compiled by the Dept of Census and Statistics and published in the 2016 Prison Statistics of Sri Lanka.
In the category of offences against persons, the largest number (2,493) was convicted of simple hurt such as non-life threatening injury by knife, followed by rape and incest (2,033), and grievous hurt (1,299). Unnatural offences and grave sexual abuse (833) also figured high on the list.
Nearly 0.1% (32 persons) of admissions in 2015 were prisoners convicted of “viewing blue films”. This was a reduction from 2014, when it was 59 and 66 in 2013.
Appearing drunk in public places put 1,337 people in jail in 2015, while “lodging in a verandah” fetched 106 convictions–100 of them women. For operating brothels, 71 women and 61 men were sentenced in 2015, while only 39 persons were convicted of bribery.
Under offences against property, the worst crimes were housebreaking and theft with 12,707 direct admissions of convicted prisoners. Nearly half (46.4%) of convicted prisoners directly admitted to jail in 2015 used narcotics.
Of the 759 women convicts, the largest category was also between 30 and 40 years. Most of them- 179 were sentenced for “other offences”, followed by 178 for narcotic offences, 100 for “lodging in verandahs” and 71 for operating brothels.
The majority of convicts in 2015 were first offenders (57.7%) but a significant number were re-convicts (26.6%). A significant 15.7% were repeat offenders.
Most (28.4%) of those convicted that year were given sentences of three months to less than six months, while 22.9% had sentences of six months to less than one year.
Meanwhile, nearly 80% of a total of 113,645 prisoners admitted to Sri Lanka’s jails in 2015 were remandees. This means, for every convict, there were three remand prisoners. This ratio has remained consistent for the past eight years.