Ex-Justice Minister while serving a severe indictment on country’s prisons urges relocation of women’s wards

“Drug addiction cannot be changed by punishment”

SJB Ratnapura District MP and former Justice Minister Thalatha Atukorale yesterday in Parliament called for the relocation of the female wards of the country’s prisons to their own separate premises and for the rehabilitation of drug addicts.

Atukorale said relocating the female wards would be “good for everybody”.

“I cannot think of a place as corrupt as the prisons, a place that doesn’t treat people as badly as they’re treated there.

“Though a female ward exists, it should be relocated to some other region. This would be good for everybody,” she said.

Atukorale said Sri Lanka’s prisons are packed with drug offenders.

“Even prisoners who don’t take drugs, come out as users,” she said.

Since it’s rare that major drug lords are imprisoned and it’s mostly users who are low-level dealers that end up in prison, the MP said, they should also be separately rehabilitated with the assistance of the Dangerous Drugs Control Board.

“Take them to an outdoor rehabilitation centre far away or to private centres like the one run by Bodananda Thera in Kuppiyawatta and recommence the rehabilitation programme. [Drug addiction] cannot be changed by punishment,” she said.