COLOMBO, Feb 20 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's government is drafting laws to enable courts to place suspects under house arrest instead of remanding them in custody, in a bid to ease severe prison overcrowding, said a senior official, reported Xinhua.
Justice and National Integration Minister, Harshana Nanayakkara, said on Thursday that Sri Lanka's prisons, built to hold about 10,500 inmates, are currently housing nearly 39,000.
He said remand prisoners account for the main problem, noting that about 28,000 inmates are being held in remand custody, including around 20,000 detained on drug-related offences.
The minister said the proposed legislation would empower courts to impose home detention in suitable cases instead of sending suspects to prison, helping to reduce congestion in the prison system.
Nanayakkara also said Sri Lanka has no structured mechanism to review or reduce sentences for prisoners serving life terms or facing the death penalty.
He said the government had appointed a committee to examine the feasibility of introducing a sentence-reduction framework for long-term inmates.
--BERNAMA-XINHUA
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