It will be up for grabs once the Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry carries out its ambitious prison reform programme, which include the relocation of prisons, said Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Minister D.E.W.Gunasekara.Sri Lanka’s prisons system will go through a series of changes, including the relocation of almost all the major prisons (such as Welikada, Bogambara and Jaffna; and the Borella Magazine remand prison) within the next two years, at a cost of over Rs. 10 billion, Mr. Gunasekara said.

The land on which the Welikada Prison complex is situated is one of the largest unitary plots of land in the city. The Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry expects to raise funds for the prison re-location programme by selling this land. When offers are invited the private sector, too, would be free to bid, as the ministry does not intend to burden the Treasury with claims for funds.

The modalities of the transaction will be worked out shortly by the government.   Mr. Gunasekara said that the Welikada prison complex covered a highly valuable prime land, 40 acres in extent, within the city, and that it could be utilised for commercial purposes and to expand the City of Colombo Under the first stage of the proposed relocation programme, the Mahara prison and the Watareka work camp will be expanded to accommodate convicted, unconvicted and remand prisoners who are currently kept at the Welikada and Magazine prisons.

Bogambara prison in Kandy is to be relocated at Pallekele, and the Jaffna prison will be taken to a location on Ponnali Road near the lagoon. The ministry is in the process of seeking new sites for the Galle, Matara and Tangalle prisons, said Mr. Gunasekara.

“Prisoners are being punished several times over after becoming inmates of highly congested prisons that do not possess the minimum basic facilities. A prison here is, in fact, a living hell. And an innocent man is liable to be turned into a hardcore criminal within a few months, or even weeks, here.

A change from this extremely alarming and inhuman situation is vital if we are to use prisons as institutions for rehabilitation or reformation,” he said. Unconvicted and remand prisoners are to be separated from convicted and hard core criminals under the reform programme. The prisoners are to be graded and the grades kept separated. New prisons are to be constructed according to international guidelines for prisons, with facilities for recreation and sports, said Mr. Gunasekara. (DM)