The Department of Prisons has temporarily stopped producing inmates before court from three Colombo prisons after measles was detected among detainees, and has begun vaccinating prisoners to contain the outbreak.
The suspension covers the Colombo Remand Prison, the Magazine Remand Prison and Welikada Prison, both newsrooms reporting on the outbreak agree.
What the Prisons Department says
Prison Media Spokesperson Senaka Pallethanna said the relevant courts were informed in writing of the decision, and that no inmates from the three prisons were produced before court, the Daily Mirror reported.
Several measles cases had been reported across the three facilities over the past few days, he said, raising concern about the disease spreading among inmates. A vaccination programme has been launched inside the prisons.
Hiru News reported that the Prisons Board notified the courts by letter, and named the courts affected as the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court, the Colombo High Court and the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court. A prison officer at court told Hiru the step was taken with the approval of the Health Ministry because the illness was spreading rapidly among detainees. Hiru reports that the prisoners’ dock in the courts was seen standing empty.
The two accounts differ on the day
The two filings disagree about which day no inmates were produced, and the difference is not resolved by either report.
The Daily Mirror, filed at 2.01 p.m. on Monday, says no inmates were produced “today (November 9)”. Hiru, filed at 11.24 a.m. the same morning, twice says “today (08)” — that is, Sunday 8 November — while carrying a 9 November timestamp, which is internally inconsistent.
The likeliest readings are that Hiru’s copy carries a stale day number, or that the suspension began on the 8th and continued into the 9th. This desk reports both as filed rather than choosing between them. What both agree on is the three prisons, the cause, and that the courts were notified in writing.
Context
Measles is a highly contagious viral illness spread through the air. Prisons are a well-recognised amplifying setting for airborne disease because of crowding and close contact, and Sri Lanka’s remand facilities have been the subject of sustained attention this year — a parliamentary committee began a round of prison inspections on 7 November to address overcrowding, and a government review has been examining prison population pressures.
Sri Lanka has been dealing with a wider resurgence of measles, and the health system is simultaneously managing a dengue caseload past 107,000 with 81 deaths this year.
Suspending the production of remand prisoners before court delays bail applications and the progress of cases, though neither filing addresses that consequence.
Not reported
Neither newsroom says how many inmates have contracted measles, whether any have been hospitalised, or whether prison staff are affected. Neither says how long the suspension will last, how courts will handle cases that cannot proceed, or whether remand periods will be extended administratively. Neither reports how many inmates the vaccination programme will cover, and no Health Ministry official is quoted in either account.
