Sri Lankan prisons are like an overheated pressure cooker waiting to explode.
Conditions within prisons have been appalling for years, and the tragic incident at Negombo Prison is a repetition of what the country has witnessed over the years, with prisoners revolting against the poor and inhumane conditions under which they are held, the end result being the tragic loss of lives. The deaths of seven prison officials, along with 20 inmates, are deeply disturbing.
The Government has appointed a committee to look into the circumstances that led to the violence and submit a report, but such reports have been compiled in the past too and have ended up in a record room somewhere, with their recommendations soon forgotten.
The Government in power has to take responsibility for what happened, and the onus is on it to take remedial action. There will certainly be political fallout for the Government due to this incident, the worst such loss of life since the National People’s Power (NPP) took office. No doubt it has shaken the party leadership, given the somewhat complacent manner in which it has been going about its business since taking office nearly two years ago.
It was less than two weeks ago that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake boasted that under his Government there had been no use of tear gas to break up protests, but in this case tear gas would certainly have been preferable to the live bullets that felled more than two dozen men.
In 2026, Juan E. Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, visited Sri Lanka. If one reads through his report following the fact-finding mission, it is clear that there are many things wrong with our prison system.
The UN official noted that prison detention conditions were more than deplorable, and that deficient infrastructure, overcrowding, lack of adequate sleeping accommodation, poor ventilation and extreme heat combined to constitute a form of ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.’
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) led the first national study of prisons a few years ago, in which it found that the conditions under which prisoners are held do not meet basic standards and, in many instances, are inhumane and constitute degrading treatment.
Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Mandela Rules, the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. However, the country remains far behind in implementing them on the ground.
The country’s prison population consists mostly of poor and marginalised people. This means prisons are, more or less, a poor person’s problem. Delays in the administration of justice mean people are locked up for years without trial, leading to overcrowding.
There are hundreds in prison simply because they are unable to pay bail. There are also many who have been incarcerated when they should instead be in rehabilitation centres, not behind prison walls with hardened criminals, a situation that often pushes young men and women further into a life of crime.
Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara, himself a lawyer, must have a good understanding of how the country’s judicial system works. His suggestion that there should be more prisons is an archaic and backward idea. In most developed countries, prisons are being closed under systems that reserve incarceration primarily for hardened criminals and repeat offenders.
The Minister should not be talking about building new prisons but should instead focus on expediting cases and releasing men and women who pose no threat to society.
The public, too, need to be more humane in the way they view prisoners. The majority are misguided men and women who deserve a better chance at rebuilding their lives outside prison walls. They deserve empathy from the public, not scorn and judgement.