If the prisoners were human Is the ruler inhuman?

One hundred and twenty inmates and two prison officers were injured and eleven inmates died in the clash that took place on the twenty-ninth day of November last year in the Mahara prison. However, there is no word yet on the condition of the injured. In short, the Mahara prison conflict is slowly being abandoned by the media.

However, a five-member committee was appointed by Justice Minister President's Advocate Ali Sabri to look into this Mahara prison conflict. The five-member committee presented an interim report on the seventh of December last year. It said that the riots in the prisons were caused by some very reasonable demands made by the inmates. However, the committee's final report on the Mahara conflict has now been submitted to the Minister of Justice, and this article is based on that report.

Committee

Retired High Court Judge Sarojani Kusala Weerawardena, Chief Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Justice President's Advocate U.R. De Silva, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Justice Rohana Hapugaswatta, retired Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police D.R.L. Nishan Dhanasinghe, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Prisons Reforms and Prisoners Rehabilitation, served as the secretary of this five-member committee consisting of Ranaweera and former prison commissioner Gamini Jayasinghe.

Reasons for rebellion

Although the words "Prisoners are human beings" are written on the walls of Sri Lanka's prisons, it is an open secret that the prisoners inside the prison walls never get human rights. Mahara is the same. The reason for the violent conflict was a protest in the prison. As mentioned in the five-person report, there are five factors that led to the inmates' agitation.

1. That the food served on those days is unpalatable.

2. Release of bailees.

3. Making those who have not got bail to get bail

4. Providing treatment to those infected with Covid-19.

5. All inmates will be provided with PCR. Conducting tests.

According to the five-person report, there were 2793 inmates in the Mahara prison as of the date of the conflict. But according to the capacity of the Mahara prison, the maximum number of inmates that can be there is 806. Accordingly, more than three times more than the prescribed number of inmates have been in the prisons.

When reading the report of this five-member committee, it appears that due to lack of proper supervision and control, many activities were carried out in a very disorganized manner due to the spread of Corona virus in Mahara prison. On the day of the riot, only 18 inmates were employed in the food preparation process, although 60 inmates are usually involved in food processing. The report says that the number of people who came to help decreased due to the spread of Covid.

The report states that because there are not enough officers in the prison, the task of distributing food has been assigned to the inmates themselves, and therefore, although the able-bodied inmates were able to get as much food as they needed, the weak did not get enough food. It is also said that when the gravy is not enough, water is added to it, and that the inmates did not get the required amount of meat and fish. Also, the people receiving food at the end often got only gravy because they ran out of curry, fish etc.

Also, there were many shortages of vegetable suppliers to the prison and although they were entrusted with the supply of coconuts, they only supplied powdered coconut milk. Also, they provide vegetables for lunch at around 10 am. Do not these facts reveal the negligence of the prison superintendent? Isn't he neglecting his profession and responsibility? Is it unfair to ask an inmate to eat something when they don't have a meal to eat with the gang? Food has been distributed separately to certain wards. Because of this, some inmates have received their lunch after three and a half in the evening.

Bail storys

The Commissioner of Prisons has issued a circular regarding the release of prison inmates due to the Covid epidemic situation. It mentions a number of things. It states that the released prisoners should undergo PCR tests and confirm that they are not infected with Covid and they should be detained and quarantined in a separate section for fourteen days. But the five-person report states that the prisoners released on bail in the Mahara prison are not separated in a separate section, but there is not enough space in the prison for the prisoners and suspects.

Also, according to the circular, every person released from PCR The report also shows that although it is mandatory to conduct PCR tests, there were not enough facilities for it. It also states that because of this, one group of PCR The rest of the group will undergo PCR until their reports are received. That it has to be done. As a result, those released on bail have to spend more time in prison, the five-person report states. In a background where they are entitled to freedom, what else can they do without agitating when they are oppressed and detained without being allowed to enjoy that freedom?

The third thing is getting bail for those who have not been bailed. About 75% of the suspects in Mahara prison were detained on drug charges.

When we discussed with the relatives of the Mahara conflict, many of them told us "it was left in 54". 54 means a person who is produced on suspicion under sections 54(a) and (b) of the Poisonous Opiates and Dangerous Drugs Act No. 13 of 1984 in terms of subsection 83(1) of the Poisonous Opiates and Dangerous Drugs Act, as amended. In short, only the High Court can grant bail to a person presented to the court, and there must be special circumstances to consider the bail.

As shown in the five-person report, the police bring drug addicts to court under section 54. (Page 58) It states that it should be stopped immediately and that imprisoning drug addicts is ineffective. In fact, most of the relatives we have met say that their loved ones who have been incarcerated for drug-related offenses are not traffickers, they are drug addicts.

It is revealed that the congestion in the Mahara prison was very high because the police avoided the traffickers and arrested the addicts.

Because of this, the committee states that there were such a high number of remand prisoners in Mahara Prison due to issues such as not receiving expert reports, not receiving instructions from the Attorney General for filing cases in the High Court, taking a long time after filing cases in the High Court, and not being able to fulfill bail and bail conditions.

The fourth thing is the fear of death. As the inmates came to know that there are many patients infected with Covid in the Mahara prison, they also feared that they too would get the disease.

PCR conducted on November 25 and 27 last year in Mahara prison. According to the tests, it has been learned that 191 people have been infected with Covid-19. Also, there was an outbreak of fever in most of the cabins these days. Meanwhile, on November 29th, in the afternoon news, it was broadcast on television that Covid patients were identified in Mahara Prison. This is how the Mahara inmates know that there are Covid-infected patients among them. Since they knew nothing about the patients until then and no one had started a treatment process, they could not help but be nervous. Because of this, the inmates should no longer keep the sick in the cells and remove them and treat them and protect those who are not infected, PCR should be given to all. Investigations have also been requested.

According to the report of the five-member committee, it was a request to the prison officials to save their lives by a group of people who were in distress, fearing immediate death.

Are their demands unreasonable? Aren't they protesting because the Jail Control Authority has failed to understand the situation properly and is avoiding it?

Corona in Mahara

There is also some explanation in this report about how the corona virus came to the Mahara prison.

Corona infected patients in Mahara Prison will be identified first through the PCR conducted on November 25 and 27. According to the test reports. Before that, a group of inmates will be sent from Welikada Prison to Mahara Prison on the 9th of November. When the spread of Covid in prisons, a decision is made to use Welikada Prison as a detention center for Covid patients to control it. Accordingly, 112 chronic patients who were in the Welikada prison hospital will be sent to Mahara on the ninth of last November. But all the 112 people who send PCR No tests are done. Out of those 112, PCR Only 34 patients are tested.

However, Dr. Panavanna of Mahara Prison Hospital spoke to Dr. Hemantha Ranasinghe, Deputy Director of Prisons (Health Services) and asked the concerned patients to undergo PCR. Notified to send. Also, the patients sent from Welikadin were PCR. As Dr. Hemantha Mahara Jail Superintendent and Chief Medical Officer had been informed that no one sent from Welikadin to Mahara has been infected with Covid, they have not been quarantined at the Mahara Jail Hospital.

However, the five-member committee report says that after bringing the patients to Mahara Jail, some of them gave PCR to themselves. Although it was said that it was not done, Dr. Panavanna said that all the inmates were kept mixed in the hospital. At the same time, he is testifying to the commission and says that even though Dr. Hemantha Ranasinghe instructed to isolate the patients, it could not be done due to lack of space. However, according to Dr. Hemantha's instructions, the Mahara Prison Commissioner had cleaned the "D" ward and prepared it for the transferred patients. But it is also seen in the report that Mahara prison doctor Panavanna has not paid attention to it.

However, Welikadin will send patients to Mahara on November 09, Welikadin will first see corona patients on November 03. It is for a drug store and 04 female inmates. Also, after the patients were sent to Mahara, the PCR which was done in the hospital on November 13. An investigation has revealed that 37 people were infected with Covid.

However, the chief medical officer of Welikada prison hospital G. Janaki This Kumar says that because there was no risk of Covid in Welikada Hospital, PCR was not done for everyone. However, after the patients were sent, after it was revealed that there are Covid patients in the Welikada prison hospital, the PCR of the sent patients. The commission says that a report should have been sent to the chief medical officer of Welikada about the patients who were tested and those who were not.

Because of this, the prison cannot escape the responsibility of the spread of covid. It is clear that their carelessness caused a wave of covid in the prison.

Shooting

The death toll in the Mahara prison clash is 11. Recently, the Attorney General's Department informed the court that all eleven of them died due to gunshot wounds. This five-member committee says that the police and special forces officers were deployed there at that time, but they did not fire, but the prison officers did. The Mahara Jail Superintendent tells the committee that he ordered to shoot only below the knees. But looking at the deaths, it is clear that the inmates were killed by gunshots to the head and chest, well above the knees.

Also, this five-member commission says that the prison officers who fired the shots were not properly trained in their use, and depending on the type of firearms they used, there is a possibility of injuring a large number of people. Two things can be said from this, one, from providing facilities to the inmates to shooting them, the prison control authority has not paid any attention to the inmates, even though the prisoners are human beings, the prison officials have treated the prisoners as if they were animals.

The second is that the committee is telling such a story to protect those responsible. If the prison officers are not well trained in shooting, is it possible to think that the special task forces, who are well trained, were not involved in those shootings? It is also possible that the committee report is trying to confirm that the prison officers are not properly trained to shoot, so instead of shooting at the knees, they shot in the head, and because they have knowledge of guns, when they shot to injure, a large number of people were shot. However, it is clear that eleven inmates were killed by the shots fired by the government.

Drugs and beatings

It is stated in the report that during the rebellion, the inmates had taken drugs such as prednisolone, salbutamol, theophylline, haloperidol, resperidol, artane, and diazepam at the time of the riot. Because of this, they behaved impulsively and with a distorted mind, according to the report. This is the famous story told by Wimal Weerawansa. Not only Vimal but also other government officials said that this conflict occurred after taking pills and his mind became distorted. But at that time, doctors said that taking drugs for mental illness does not distort the mind.

However, this report clearly states that pills were not the cause of the conflict. It is clear how many human factors beyond pills led to this conflict.

During the prison conflict, a conflict between the inmates was broadcast on television at that time. Regarding that, the committee says that there have been various disputes between different gangs in the prison since a period of time, and at this time they have cleared their grievances as they have been given the opportunity to behave freely. Otherwise, it is not mentioned that they took pills and killed each other.

The committee says that 120 inmates were injured in this conflict, of which 29 were injured by firearms. Those people were shot and injured. The rest were injured for other reasons.

Thalatha also accused

The committee points to the lack of prison officers as one of the reasons for not being able to solve the causes of this conflict. Although the number of approved officers in Mahara Jail is 502, the number of officers in Mahara Jail is 278. Accordingly, there are 248 vacancies in Mahara Jail.

Thus, the committee's report states that even though it was prepared to recruit candidates in 2018 to fill the vacancies in all the prisons in Sri Lanka, the said recruitment was canceled by the Minister of Prisons at that time. Therefore, it is said that the then Minister of Justice and Prison Reforms Thalatha Athukorala is primarily responsible for the lack of officers and that she is responsible for not fulfilling and defaulting on her duty and responsibility, correctly and honestly.

The Welikada incident also released many pages of reports. In the end, no one responsible was punished. Also, under the Rajapaksa governments, the occurrence of such incidents is now becoming very common. However, rather than hundreds of reports being released, justice should be done. It is not written on the wall that prisoners are human beings, but it is proved by actions. ■

Rasika Gunawardana - Ravaya - 2021-01-17