Sri Lanka explores house arrest to ease severe prison overcrowding

Colombo, July 24 (Daily Mirror) - The Government is considering introducing house arrest and other technology-based alternatives to imprisonment as part of broader legal reforms to address severe overcrowding in Sri Lanka's prisons, said Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara.

He said the Government is working on legal amendments to introduce alternatives to imprisonment in suitable cases, including the use of technology-based measures such as house arrest. 

Speaking at the opening of the new Pugoda Court Complex on Friday (24), the Minister said the country's prisons, which were built to accommodate 10,375 inmates, are currently housing around four times that number.

Nanayakkara said delays in obtaining Government Analyst reports remain one of the main causes of prison overcrowding, particularly by prolonging the remand period of suspects.

He noted that if Government Analyst reports are issued more promptly, the remand prison population could be reduced by nearly half.

To address the issue, the Government has increased the capacity of the Government Analyst's Department to issue between 1,500 and 2,000 reports per month, while also providing additional staff and other resources to improve the department's efficiency.

The Minister also highlighted the growing backlog of court cases as one of the biggest challenges facing Sri Lanka's justice system, stressing the need to reduce pending cases to a manageable level for judges.

He pointed out that while developed countries have between 40 and 60 judges per one million people, Sri Lanka has only around 10 judges per million population.