The Government Analyst’s Department issued 17,506 drug-related reports in August and September, Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said on Thursday, presenting the figure as evidence that the backlog keeping thousands of drug suspects on remand is clearing, the Daily Mirror reported.
The total splits into 9,061 reports in August and 8,445 in September. The minister said steps had been taken both to speed up the issuance of reports and to amend the relevant legislation.
He was speaking at the launch of an integrated response mechanism at Kuruwita Prison.
Measured against the promise
The figures are the first hard output numbers published since the minister gave a six-week timeline for easing overcrowding on 27 August, when he said the department was producing 400 to 500 reports a day after recruiting 70 officers and buying three analysis machines.
The two sets of numbers are not directly comparable: the August commitment covered the department’s entire output, while these counts are drug-related reports only. The department has previously reported that about 70% of its reports concern drugs. On that ratio, 9,061 drug reports in August implies total output near 13,000 — consistent with, or above, the pace the minister described.
What the figures do show plainly is that September ran below August, by 616 reports. The minister did not address the dip.
Against the roughly 23,000 drug-case prisoners he said in August were on remand awaiting reports, two months of output at this rate makes real inroads — though the department is also absorbing new cases continuously, so the backlog does not fall by the full amount issued.
A mechanism at the site of August’s deaths
The integrated mechanism launched at Kuruwita coordinates government institutions at regional level to respond to prison emergencies and to streamline inmate welfare. Officials from the police, the Department of Prisons, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Fire Brigade and the Ceylon Electricity Board took part.
The choice of venue carries weight. Kuruwita Prison is where two inmates were killed and up to 13 injured in unrest in August, when tear gas was used to regain control. The mechanism also delivers on the joint prison-safety arrangement Nanayakkara promised in late August without then saying how it would work.
On recent unrest
Nanayakkara said incidents in prisons in recent times “had not occurred spontaneously”, attributing some to external influences and others to internal factors. He did not elaborate on either.
Resistance was inevitable when changing a system 30 or 40 years old, he said, but reforms had to continue regardless. He cautioned that misconduct by a small number of prison officers should not expose the whole service to allegations.
“The principle that ‘Prisoners are also human beings’ should not remain merely a statement displayed on prison walls,” he said.
The minister met remand prisoners and officers at Kuruwita to hear their concerns and briefed inmates on measures to allow those held on drug offences to obtain bail.
No other verified newsroom had reported the two-month figures at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror does not give the current prison population, the size of the remaining backlog, or which legislation is being amended.
