COURTS TO PROVIDE DESTROYED DOCUMENTS

The Prisons Department is to collect criminal records of the prisoners in remand for narcotic offences from respective courts after the records room of the Magazine remand prison was set on fire and documents destroyed during riots on Tuesday, a senior prison officer said.

"Most of the records destroyed were their character reports prepared by prison officers and criminal records. Character reports are prepared for future reference in order to deduct their prison term if they are behaving well for a considerable time period without causing any problems," he said.

A sub-report compiled by an independent commission set up to probe the riots will be handed over to the Minister of Prison Reforms Chandrasiri Gajadeera tomorrow. The riots which took place in the Magazine remand prison had cost a damage of Rs.10 million to the Prisons Department.

he inmates had protested against strict measures implemented by the new superintendent.

The Superintended of Prisons (SP) had cracked down on all the ways and methods used by the prisoners to smuggle drugs into the Magazine prison where 1800 remand prisoners are accommodated presently.

Steps have been taken to build a concrete roof for every building of the prisons in the country, where the inmates were being detained, Prisons official said. He said this action has been taken following recent moves by the inmates in jails to use prison roofs to conduct protests. The latest incident happened last week at Magazine Prisons, in Welikada, where hundreds of prisoners held a protest after climbing the roof of the prisons. Accordingly, as the first step the proposed new Jaffna Prisons, that was scheduled to commence building from yesterday, will have the entire roof with concrete.

A sum of Rs. 338 million had been allocated for the new prisons, which can accommodate over 800 prisoners, he added.