Prisoners‟ rehabilitation in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The problem of prisoners is a burden to current Sri Lanka as 1.5% of the totalpopulation of Sri Lanka are Srilankan prisoners, and the most important fact is that outof that percentage 46% are in between 20 to 30 years and 36.5% are imprisoned due todrug related matters. It is an obstacle for the current development of the society and thecountry, as the government has to allocate a large amount of funds from the budget forthe prisoners.

The objective of the research is to introduce a new rehabilitation programme tocivilize the prisoners, value and develop their own skills for the benefit of the countryand release them to the society as good citizens.

When the prisoners are released to the society there are more possibilities ofthem engaging again in criminal activities due to many reasons such as poverty, lack ofeducation, background and etc… That is why to prevent their re imprisonment and toadjust their mental formation and to start their lives through basic human requirementsprisoners‟ rehabilitation is needed. Though there is a current rehabilitation programmeconducts, it should be reviewed, restructured and reprogrammed through the vavles ofthe old programme and introduce new methods and techniques to the new society as adeveloping nation. It will be a better bench mark for the policy makers.

Both quantitative and the qualitative methods will be used to gather theinformation. There will be two focus groups, such as current prisoners and releasedprisoners. With the permission from the prison department around 100 prisoners fromboth the categories will be interviewed inside the prison individually, confidentially andrespectfully. (LTTE prisoners are excepted from the research), The advice and theguidelines will be taken from the rehabilitation trainers and the scholars.

Key words: Prisoners, Rehabilitation, Development, Training, Scholars