Petty crime, unpaid fines and overcrowded jails - EDITORIAL

Our prisons are overcrowded.  According to the Prisons Department, while the total capacity of our prisons is for 13,241 inmates, the total prison population stood at over 29,000. Almost double the number the system was designed to hold.   
In 2022 of all prisoners who were sentenced to prison, 64% were those who were unable to pay fines imposed on them. This number reached an all-time high of 74 percent in 2020.  

In other words, they were charged with minor misdemeanours, not requiring imprisonment. The fact they are unable to pay the fines indicates these persons are from poverty-stricken backgrounds, whose families do not have the means to pay the fines imposed.   
The fact that the numbers who were unable to pay the fines rose to 74% in 2020, tells its own tale. It was a time when over 500,000 people lost employment in the aftermath of Easter Sunday bombings followed by the Covid-19 pandemic which by followed the financial meltdown in 2022.   

Many a parent was probably obliged to take to petty crime to feed their children. The ‘wrong-doer’ is rather a victim of a societal sin. There needs to be an alternate means of dealing with problems such as these. The fact is, many petty-criminals are victims of a much bigger crime committed by persons in power and position.   
It also means, the dependent family is now in a more desperate and helpless position.   
Inadequate cells space also leads to prisons being overcrowded. In many instances while the average cell area is 48 sq ft (8’ x 6’) designed to hold a maximum of two prisoners per cell; often four to six prisoners are forced into this tiny space.  

Unsurprisingly insanitary conditions are the order of the day - with overflowing toilets more or less the norm. Added to the misery there is insufficient time for ablutions. Six persons attempting to sleep in a space meant for two which are often bug-infested adds to nightmarish conditions.  
As mentioned earlier, 64% of prisoners are those who were unable to pay fines. It is therefore clear, most prisoners have not been found guilty of serious offences. The result, prisons are filled with people who should not be in them.  

Rapists are dangerous to our communities and should be in prison. The Easter Sunday bombers and their handlers are dangerous. But the inmates who are serving years for nonpayment of fines are not dangerous.   
Why are they in prison and held with the dangerous people who care little for human life? Could they not have any other punishment rather than being held away from their responsibilities and families?  

Unless a person is a danger to society, they should not be deprived of their liberty. People are in prison for bribing someone or for an inability to pay a simple fine.   
Yet, many others, as for example those who bankrupted this country, parliamentarians who drunkenly misuse official weapons and underworld killers continue breaking the law with impunity.   

These are the people who pose a danger to society.  
Many countries have probation, parole and community service, which are alternatives to imprisonment and are methods used in many countries.  
These measures have evolved with the idea that correction, if linked to the community, will be less costly, more humane and more effective than imprisonment in dealing with offenders convicted of minor offences.  

Today, the rise in the prison population is a strain on government resources. According to the prison department itself, the cost per prisoner rose from Rs 979/- a day in 2021, to Rs 1,227/- in 2022. The cost of maintaining a single prisoner a year was Rs 447,796/- in 2022, compared to Rs 357,300/- in 2021. Meal costs have gone up from Rs 239/- a day in 2021 to Rs 483/- a day last year.  
Unfortunately in Lanka we have only a few alternatives to imprisonment.   
There is a crying need for alternatives to imprisonment. We need to develop a system to ensure that individuals who do not pose a threat to society are not confined in prison.