House Arrest Act soon to mitigate prison overcrowding: Minister

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana

Colombo, July 8 (Daily Mirror) - Highlighting that the root cause of the Negombo Prison clash was tension resulting from severe overcrowding, Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara told Parliament that key legal reforms would be introduced, including a House Arrest Bill that would enable remand prisoners to be kept under house arrest subject to electronic monitoring.

"A committee has been appointed to draft the House Arrest Bill to reduce the large-scale remanding of suspects," he said.

The Minister said steps have been taken to expand the capacity of prisons to address prison overcrowding.

He said another underlying reason for prison overcrowding is the delay in granting bail to suspects held on narcotics possession charges.

"Earlier, an appeal could be filed in the High Court for a person arrested for possessing 2 grams of narcotic drugs. However, the law was later amended in 2022, requiring bail applications to be filed in the Court of Appeal for cases involving over a netwieght of 10 grammes of narcotics. It took about an year to decide at which Court the bail application should be filed," he said.

The Minister said delays in the Government Analyst Department have also been identified as one of the main causes. "Because of these delays, it is not possible to determine which court should hear an appeal for bail in cases involving minor drug offences. Another issue is the staff shortage at the Department of Government Analyst. There are 118 vacancies in the department," he said.

Referring to the Negombo Prison clash, the Minister said the incident initially erupted when some inmates assaulted fellow prisoners who had allegedly passed information about drug smuggling inside the prison.

"Prison officers became involved after two officers were assaulted by inmates. However, this information can only be confirmed once the investigation reports are received," he said.

He said a three-member committee comprising retired judges was being appointed to investigate the incident.