A parliamentary oversight committee has asked Sri Lanka Police to submit views and proposals on reducing overcrowding in the country’s prisons, with drug-related cases singled out as the main pressure point.
The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Governance, Justice and Civil Protection took up the matter at a meeting in Parliament chaired by MP Dr. Najith Indika, according to a statement issued by Parliament and reported by both Ada Derana and Daily Mirror.
Where the delays build up
The committee examined police procedures running from the arrest of suspects in drug-related offences through to the filing of cases, along with legal obstacles that may be slowing that sequence down.
Two bottlenecks were identified as pushing up the number of suspects held in remand custody: delays in court proceedings on drug cases, and delays in obtaining reports from the Government Analyst’s Department. The analyst’s workload has already drawn attention this month, with the department reporting that about 70% of the reports it produces relate to drugs.
Daily Mirror reported that members also pressed the case for a modern forensic laboratory inside the Police Department, arguing that faster analysis of scientific evidence would speed up court proceedings and, in turn, reduce the remand population. Ada Derana’s account did not mention the laboratory proposal.
Beyond arrests
Committee members said tackling drug crime should not stop at arresting individual suspects. They called for modern technology to be used to identify and dismantle trafficking networks and the financial flows behind them, and for regulatory mechanisms to stop traffickers misusing the digital money-transfer systems run by telecommunications companies.
The meeting also revisited community-based rehabilitation as an alternative to imprisonment for people with drug dependency — a theme the same committee examined on August 10, when prison officials told it that 1,506 of 4,962 inmates convicted of drug offences were in rehabilitation programmes. Members further called for wider public participation in crime prevention and for existing laws to be amended in line with current requirements.
Daily Mirror added that the committee gave attention to the welfare of police officers, their professional training and investigative skills, and mechanisms for evaluating police performance.
Neither newsroom reported a deadline for the police submissions, or which officials appeared before the committee.
