Two inmates have escaped from the Pallekele Open Prison Camp, prompting a search operation involving prison authorities and the Police, NewsFirst reported on Monday.
Prisons Spokesman Senaka Palletenna said the two escapees were suspects held in connection with drug-related offences.
The escape was discovered during a routine inmate check, when officials found the two detainees missing from the facility, according to prison officials. Prison authorities immediately launched an investigation and began a search, and the Department of Prisons said police assistance has been sought as efforts continue to trace and apprehend the two men.
NewsFirst did not report when the escape took place or was discovered, how the two left the camp, whether they were convicted or on remand, or their names.
Context
Open prison camps hold inmates assessed as low-risk under a lighter security regime than closed facilities, typically with work assignments outside the cell block — an arrangement that makes absconding easier to attempt and, as here, sometimes detectable only at a headcount.
The escape comes with the prison system already under close scrutiny. Security arrangements remain in place across all 33 prisons under a joint mechanism of police, the Special Task Force and the tri-forces set up on the President’s direction after a run of disturbances, the backdrop against which Palletenna was appointed spokesman in August. The Department has separately pressed the Justice Ministry over delayed Government Analyst reports that keep suspects in remand and drive overcrowding, with about 39,000 inmates held.
Drug cases account for a large share of that population. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said this week that about 70 per cent of inmates face drug charges, though the 40,000 figure he cited alongside it is close to the entire prison population rather than the drug-offence subset.
