This article is based on a discussion with Sudesh Nandimal, Secretary of the Committee to Protect the Rights of Prisoners, about the Fate of an Inmate in the Informal Prison System.
Prison inmates can be divided into two categories. As remand prisoners and convicts.
A remand prisoner is tortured while incarcerated. Also, a prisoner who is sentenced by a court and imprisoned is subjected to torture at the time of imprisonment. It is done by the prison admission officer. It’s normal to slap them asking “What’s your case?” . There are also instances where some officers are beaten with sticks.
tortured while incarcerated. Also, a prisoner who is sentenced by a court and imprisoned is subjected to torture while incarcerated. This is done by the officer who is about to enter the prison. What is your case? Today, it is common for people to cry and laugh when they are beaten. There are also instances where some officers are beaten with sticks.
The inmate may not even get a chance to sleep the first night he is imprisoned and has to stay over night standing in prison cell.
He is also tortured when visitors visit the prisoner. Sometimes he doesn’t even get food from home. Inmates are also tortured in prisons, even during meals. Prisoners’ rights committee has informed that the inmates of the Welikada women’s unit will receive lunch after 2.30 pm and dinner will be served again at around 5.00 pm.
It has been reported that the inmates’ access to medicines and even the sanitary pads required by women inmates inside the prison is minimal. When an inmate falls ill, the prison doctor examines the inmate with great disdain.
Rehabilitation process
Today there is no program to rehabilitate prisoners in prisons. Meditation programs, singing, and drama alone do not rehabilitate an inmate. The rehabilitation process should take place in a formal manner.
Today, some detainees are even taken to meditation programs, forcibly tortured. Without it, he / she will not be able to participate voluntarily in prisons.
Also, although there is a system in place to reduce the sentence of well-behaved detainees, they are not being carried out properly.
The situation is same for the inmates’ who got home leave.
Prison officials also had to pay the inmate who was eligible for home leave to go home.
Therefore, the prison authorities should initiate a rehabilitation process before directing these inmates to a rehabilitation process.
Detainee’s right to communicate
The Prisons Ordinance itself states that the inmate must be provided with the necessary communication facilities. In the past, correspondence was the highest form of communication. At present telephone facilities are available. But inmates often do not have access to telephone facilities. Accusing them of committing crimes through it.
But what needs to be done is to catch those who are racketeering through mobile phones. Without that, banning the use of mobile phones is not. Not all detainees do these rackets. This is an injustice done to other detainees.
Another charge against detainees is drug charges. Drugs are brought into prisons through prison officials. Evidence for this can be seen in the officers who have been arrested in the recent past. Otherwise the inmate will not go out and bring the drugs inside.
Prison torture
Everyone who is imprisoned should be imprisoned in the hope of being tortured. There is also uncertainty today about his return from prison. The best example of this is the death of even the suspects who were granted bail in the Mahara clash.