Over the last decade, some 900 prisoners have escaped before serving their full sentence, and they are still at large, many of them having gone back to a life of crime.
According to the Department of Prisons, between 1999 and 2009 a total of 2,453 suspects and convicts escaped from the custody of Sri Lanka prisons, and of this number, 1,563 were re-arrested.
In 2004, as many as 541 persons escaped from prison. The majority – 447 – are still evading arrest.
Most prison escapees go back to a life of crime.
According to the authorities, the majority of the 900 fugitives from justice were involved in the narcotics trade. The others were convicted for crimes ranging from robbery and house breaking to rape and murder.
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| Prisoners escaped by breaking a grill in the prison cell window |
According to Prisons Department officials, some of the 900 persons evading re-arrest have been jailed more than once, while others were facing life or long-term prison sentences.
The Sri Lanka Police Department, which is tasked with cracking down on the drugs business, is now burdened with hunting down the very offenders they helped to put in jail.
A senior Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) officer, who spoke to the Sunday Times on condition of anonymity, said the bureau is tasked with the job of re-arresting those convicts who have returned to the drugs trade.
“The drugs trade is an organised network,” he said. “The stakes are high, and so are the profits. There are several big-time drug dealers we had arrested in the past who are now roaming free after escaping from prison. Not all of them go underground or flee the country. There are many who are out there pushing drug deals worth millions of rupees.
“Some drug lords even operate from their prison cells. They are safer in prison than outside, where they are competing with dangerous rivals. There have even been cases of drugs being distributed inside prisons. How they are able to operate from within the prisons continues to be a mystery.”
The Department of Prisons rejects charges that prison guards are hand in glove with the prisoners, although there have been a few cases where guards were found to be operating with convicts.
Prisons Department spokesman Kenneth Fernando told the Sunday Times that prisoners were checked regularly.
Following the escape of 11 prisoners from the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court last Monday, the police and the Prisons Department are conducting separate investigations. Three of the 11 escapees were arrested on Tuesday afternoon. They were travelling in a three-wheeler when they were stopped near the Maradana junction. They are facing charges for drugs trafficking and house breaking.
The men told the police they had broken an iron grill in their cell and slipped out.
Five special police teams, under the direction of the Colombo Deputy Inspector General H. M. D. Herath, have been deployed to hunt down the remaining eight fugitives.
“We have learnt from past jail breaks. We are now better equipped and better trained. The Department has made radical security enhancements at prisons in the past few months.” – Kenneth Fernando, Prisons Department spokesman
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The Prisons Department has interdicted a senior prison official and four prison guards in this connection.
Of the eight evading arrest, two are serving life sentences and five are serving long-term sentences of between 17 to 46 years. One of the eight is awaiting trial.
The majority of the eight at large are connected to drugs dealing. The police are hoping to get a lead through the drugs underworld.
There was another prison escape incident on Tuesday, when yet another Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court inmate slipped out of his cell. He was apprehended a few hours later.
Notable prison breaks in the past include the November 1988 escape of 153 persons suspected of being part of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurgency.
They dug a tunnel and escaped from their detention camp in Pellawatte. Seventy-eight of the escapees were recaptured.
In September 1983, a gang of nearly 200 prisoners, most of them Tamil militant group suspects, broke out of a prison in Batticaloa.
Last April, six inmates who broke out of the Kalutara Prison were shot dead by guards, while four others were injured in the firing.
In June 2006, eight persons, including two LTTE suspects who were in custody for possessing grenades, made a daring escape through the main gates of the Batticaloa prison.
“We have learnt from past jail breaks,” said Kenneth Fernando of the Prisons Department. “We are now better equipped and better trained. “The Department has made radical security enhancements at prisons in the past few months. We have also upgraded our prisons. We are making sure there will be no jail breaks again.”
Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya recently told senior police officers that drugs trafficking was the second biggest threat to society after terrorism. |
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