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More than 8,000 prisoners will be out of jail this month
More than 8,000 remand prisoners will have their cases expedited, enabling them to obtain bail or pay up their fines and leave prisons this month as part of measures to reduce the congestion in prisons, the new Prisons Reforms State Minister, Lohan Ratwatte, told the Sunday Times yesterday.
He said discussions were held with the Attorney General’s Department and other officials on Friday on ways of expediting the cases.
The state minister said another measure would be to file charges under a lesser offence so that their bail process could be expedited.
The Sunday Times learns that most of the cases related to minor drug offences have been filed under a clause which requires a report from the Government Analyst. However due to a backlog of these reports the cases have been delayed.
At present, there are more than 28,000 convicted and unconvicted prisoners and 70 percent of them are held for drug related offences.
Meanwhile, the state minister said investigations were underway into the Mahara Prison clashes.
An estimated Rs one billion damage is reported to have been caused in the attack, according to Prisons Commissioner Chandana Ekanayake.
(Please see related story and graphic inside.)