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Sri Lanka is spending Rs. 4 Billion per year to jail more than 30,000 individuals, despite the maximum capacity of its prison being only 12,000, State Minister of Justice and Prison Affairs Anuradha Jayaratne admitted to reporters in Colombo last month, stating his government was now looking into enacting house arrests instead.
Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reform, Wijayadasa Rajapakse toured the Mantheevu islet, a part of Batticaloa this week to use the area to establish a new prison or a rehabilitation centre to overcome Sri Lanka’s issue of overcrowding in prisons.
A recent government audit based on data collected between 2015-2022 notes that the prison capacity has been exceeded by 232%. The report is based on data collected between 2015 and 2022. It is noted that the number of inmates in the overall prison system in Sri Lanka increased from 139% to 232% of the capacity of the prisons.
Last week the UN's human rights chief, said Operation Yuktiya -- the Sinhala word for "justice" -- had been responsible for police abuses.