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Prisoners too are human beings
By Bernie Wijesekera
On a quiet sunny Poya morning last month, I paid a visit to the Welikada Prison. Despite being a holiday the Prisons officers were working. Unlike in the past, the prisoners were in clean clothes. In the long queue were relatives and well-wishers coming to visit the inmates with goodies in hand.

In the past, the inmates of the Welikada Prison were a forgotten lot. Much has changed though, thanks to the humanitarian work done by the amiable Commissioner of Prisons, Rumy Marzook who has introduced various rehabilitation programmes. For his good work the Indian Prisons Commissioner Kiran Bedi gave Mr. Marzook an Indian Vision Special Award last year in Delhi for prisons welfare. Prisons officers are now sent abroad for specialised training.

The recorrection mechanism for prisoners has now been put into motion along with HIV protection programmes and a focus on the art of living. They are even trained to sing by popular artiste Keerthi Pasqual.

Assistant Commissioner Operations/Director Training M.P. Sarath Chandra who knows the prevailing system well says some of the prisoners languish for two to three years without a trial, suffering in silence apparently due to legal snags. This unwarranted delay is due to the expensive administrative system. Some are compelled to plead guilty due to lack of funds to retain a lawyer.
Overcrowding and lack of facilities are some of the major problems at Welikada which houses some 24,000 prisoners, both male and female. Of them 14,000 are in remand. Sixty six prisoners are on death row at Welikada, two for drug offences.

Mr. Chandra said Prisons labour could be utilised for development work and agriculture. Some are already involved in small industries. The long term prisoners are better behaved due to the meditation programme in the prisons, he feels.

The saddest part of my visit was seeing the women's section where there are 26 innocent children. Lalitha Malini, the supervisor took me around this section where there are around 600 inmates, including those in remand.

Poverty, ignorance and discrimination are the main causes for most of these women who are among the poorest of the poor, resorting to petty crime. In one case a mother with a one-month-old baby from Ratnapura district involved in drugs has been sentenced to five years. She has five other children who are now being looked after by the grandmother.

There are many more cases of this nature in the women's ward. Commissioner Marzook, has used his good offices through a former Sri Lanka ruggerite to help pay a fine of a pregnant mother, who was jailed for a petty offence. She was apparently on the verge of delivering a baby.

Many are the tragic stories and great is the need for rehabilitation and reform to the prison system.

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