Columns

The front wall of the Prisons Headquarters has the words “Prisoners are human beings too” engraved on it. The statement is a reflection of the State’s commitment to treat the inmates of prisons as human beings notwithstanding any indiscretion that they may have committed resulting in their imprisonment.

Recent incidents cast doubts on the capacity or willingness of the State to live up to the values that it professes to uphold. There have been several incidents in the different prisons in the country in recent times that are matters of concern to all citizens.

While it is incumbent on the State to ensure the safety and security of all its citizens, there is an even greater responsibility on the State to ensure the safety and wellbeing of prisoners as they do not have the capacity to make choices that relate to their safety and wellbeing.

It is in this light that one has to examine the unfortunate incidents that occurred at the Mahara Prison resulting in the death of 11 inmates as well as injuries being caused to over 100 individuals including at least two prison officials.

While the immediate causes that triggered the riots will have to be determined by an independent and impartial inquiry, there are some self-evident facts that created the environment for such an unfortunate incident to take place.

The overcrowding in the country’s prisons is a well-known phenomenon that has been talked about for several years. Adding to this is the lack of adequate staff to man the prisons which places an extra burden on the officials on duty when something untoward like the incident at Mahara Prison happens.

According to available reports only nine prison officials were on duty when the unrest broke out in the Mahara Prison. The situation at the Welikada Prison is no different with only ten officers on night duty where nearly 3000 prisoners are housed.

Such a situation prevails despite 22,363 vacancies existing for prison officers.

During the previous Government’s Prison Reforms and Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorala took steps to fill these vacancies and several rounds of interviews were held. However these interviews have been abruptly halted.

It is learnt that subsequently Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle has presented a Cabinet paper to recruit prison officials to fill the existing vacancies.

However the last straw that broke the camel’s back at Mahara Prison seems to have been the mishandling of the COVID-19 factor in the prisons. What is alarming is that more than 1098 COVID-19 patients have been detected in the entire prison network of the country.

How such a large number could have been infected in the prisons which is a controlled and secure environment with little or no interaction with the outside world remains a mystery. Moreover when such an infiltration of the COVID-19 virus was detected why steps were not taken at the initial stage to curb the spread of the virus within the prisons remains an unanswered question.

In the case of the Mahara Prison, according to reports 120 inmates from Welikada had been transferred to Mahara Prison resulting in the inmates getting agitated.

This is confirmed by the interim report on the Mahara Prison incidents issued by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) which states that the protests were sparked off by the transfer of prisoners infected with COVID-19 from the Welikada prison to Mahara. The HRCSL has pointed out that if the authorities had responded to prison officials’ concerns to this proposed transfer and had, instead, set up a separate treatment facility for prisoners, this clash and the subsequent deaths could have been completely avoided.

The HRCSL has also drawn attention to its communications to prison authorities in March and November 2020 and the recommendations made by the Commission based on its study of the prisons. The study had found that overcrowding was causing general unrest and fuelling the fear of the spread of COVID-19 among the inmates and recommended a number of steps to mitigate these fears.

The HRCSL had also observed in its interim report that if the authorities had responded to prison officials’ concerns to the proposed transfer of inmates from Welikada to Mahara this clash and the subsequent deaths could have been completely avoided.

Meanwhile the Government is reported to have appointed several committees to investigate the Mahara Prison incidents. However the integrity of the process of these inquiries seems to have already been compromised with several ministers already expressing diverse opinions with regard to the incidents.

The State Minister of Prisons at the time of the incident, Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle has spoken of a hidden hand that triggered the riots while Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage has said it was an attempt to escape from prison.

The most controversial view was expressed by Minister Wimal Weerawansa who stated that the riots were an attempt to tarnish the President’s image internationally. He also said the inmates had consumed psychiatric drugs stored in the prison which had driven them to violent behavior so as to want to see blood.

This was immediately refuted by the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists (SLCP) who issued a statement stating that psychiatric drugs could only calm emotions and not cause violent behavior.

“Sri Lankan psychiatrists have been using these drugs for the last seven decades with benefit to patients. These drugs are prescribed based on well-accepted guidelines. None of the drugs are responsible for violent or aggressive behaviour. Moreover, many of them promote calmness and cause mild drowsiness,” the SLCP said.

Adding to the confusion the new Prison Reforms Minister Lohan Ratwatte said none of the prisoners had died of gunshot injuries despite reports of gunshots being heard during the incidents. This can easily verified when the post mortems are conducted on the dead bodies.

Any attempt to cremate the bodies under the guise of doing so due to COVID-19 will only prevent the truth from coming out. The only meaningful statement came from Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella who said the Government would take full responsibility for what happened.

In such a context it is imperative that an independent, impartial and transparent inquiry is conducted in order to ascertain what happened at the Mahara Prison, to hold all those responsible for the situation that gave rise to the incidents and recommend measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future. (javidyusuf@gmail.com)