Minister of Justice and Law Reform, Milinda Moragoda in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Leader spoke of his goal to improve prison conditions in the country. Asserting that current conditions are in an appalling state Moragoda maintains that bail should be the first option unless the prisoner is dangerous and might flee.
Excerpts of the interview:
Q: What are you doing to improve the prison conditions in this country?
A: If you start at the remand prisons, bail should be the first option unless the prisoner is dangerous or might flee. We need to encourage the judiciary to use bail more instead of remand. And we have a commission in charge of community-based correction.
Q: What can be done to relieve overcrowding?
A: We need to look at the whole philosophy of prisons. Prisons are partly about punishment, partly about deterrence, but most importantly they’re about rehabilitation. We’re planning to build rehabilitation facilities for 5,000 drug addicts, working together with the private sector and foreign governments to get these facilities. These are not going to be 24-hour miracles. Prisons are not just bricks and mortar, although that’s important. We need to build up our resources because law and order in a post-war situation becomes much more important.
I see it as a fact that in a community when the school, the family, and the place of worship fail, the prison fills up. A prison is a mirror of society. We’re trying to integrate the courts into the community, like in the US or UK, where people are not afraid to come to the court.
Q: How does your approach differ from that of previous ministers of justice?
A: My approach is not to reinvent the wheel. I’m pushing forward a couple of initiatives and adding a few of my own. The conflict ensured that priorities were elsewhere. Now that it’s over, we can make the prison into an institution with dignity. It’s an old system - it dates back to colonial times. But when everyone is constantly criticizing you, you lose morale. When I made a speech to the prison guards, I said that the most important quality they could have is self-respect and pride. Discipline is very important, but it can’t happen without self-respect.
Q: How do you plan to reform the work programmes?
A: We have had a lot of help from the private sector, especially the apparel industry. We need to teach the prisoners skills and self-confidence.
Q: What concrete changes have you already made?
A: At the beginning of my appointment I worked out a decision with the Department of Defense and the President to give amnesty to army deserters, since the war was over. We’ve also started moving drug addicts to separate facilities. We’ve been encouraging the use of bail, and the new chief justice has asked his judges to visit prisons. Society has to realize that prison reform is important. Nobody wants to give priority to providing resources to prisons. Yes, prisons are expensive. But their role is very important. |
