New prison rules raise alarms

by Amani Nilar 23-10-2022 | 9:31 PM

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Minister of Justice has imposed further restrictions on the rights of imprisoned persons under a gazette issued on 12th July 2022.

Former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Ambika Satkunanathan Tweeted concerns in this regard today.

According to the former HRCSL Commissioner, as per the new prison rules under the Second 94 of the Prisons Ordinance, most concerning are the reduction of visits to remanded imprisoned persons from 6 days a week to 1 a week. She added that they have also reduced the time outside cell from 4 hours to 1 hour.

Some of the provisions underlined in the gazette is as follows:

RIGHT TO RECEIVE VISITS

An unconvicted person to receive visits 6 days a week, is repealed by the gazette, which replaces it with a rule that limits such visits to once a week.

The new rule also sets out reasons for which visits can be restricted. These reasons include; ‘for the protection of health or morals,‘to protect the reputation of others’ and ‘for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary'.

RIGHT TO HEALTH

The rule which requires a person to be outside their cell for at least
four hours in daylight for the purpose of exercise has been amended to reduce the period to one hour.

At present, it is only those on death row or those who are categorized as ‘special prisoners’,i.e.those who are considered high security risk, that are allowed only one hour outside their cell.

ACCESS TO BASIC ITEMS

The rules state that articles not supplied by the prison are considered prohibited items, and may be confiscated.

In practice, the prison does not provide any item except for the uniform for convicted persons,and and basic provisions, such as toothbrush, toothpaste,soap, towel, pillows, have to be provided by family members.

Under the proposed rules, cooked and uncooked items, clothing and paper have been included as prohibited items, denying incarcerated persons access to nutritional and edible food.

In 2020, the HRCSL conducted a study on prisons in Sri Lanka, which revealed that the treatment and detention conditions of prisoners fall far below the threshold of basic living standards.