CCTV cameras to be installed in prison buses

By Norman Palihawadane

Prisons Commissioner and spokesman Gamini B. Dissanayake yesterday said that their Department had commenced installing CCTV cameras in busses that transport inmates labelled as special category inmates.

This initiative would help enhance security, he said, adding that the CCTV cameras would enable the Prisons authorities to monitor the buses.

He said that the initiative would also boost the ongoing measures to prevent contraband entering prisons. There had been instances of narcotic drugs being thrown into busses from outside.

The buses used for transporting special category prisoners would be equipped with CCTV cameras first as such inmates have been identified as high-risk or vulnerable individuals requiring heightened security measures.

Dissanayake said that the country’s prisons accommodated about 28,000 inmates and out of them approximately 14,500 were serving sentences for drug-related offences.