The Hon. Jagath Vithana
Jagath Vithana asked the Minister of Justice and National Integration about overcrowding and staffing shortages at Kalutara Prison, noting that around 2,000 prisoners are held despite an approved capacity of 811. He sought details on measures to reduce overcrowding, fill Jailor and Sergeant vacancies, provide short-term relief for overworked staff, address vacant posts and irregular transfers, and prevent court production delays caused by staff shortages.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 KALUTARA PRISON: PRISONER OVERCROWDING AND STAFF SHORTAGE Question No. 1881/2026, to the Minister of Justice and National Integration:
¶ 02 (a) Will he inform this House: (i) measures taken to control overcrowding at Kalutara Prison where the approved capacity is 811 but around 2,000 are held; (ii) the date on which the large number of vacancies for Jailors and Sergeants will be filled expeditiously; (iii) short-term measures to ease continuous duty by existing staff due to shortages; (iv) reasons for not appointing new officers to posts fallen vacant during last year’s transfers; (v) how irregular transfers causing deficits at Kalutara while Galle and Matara have excess will be rectified; and (vi) measures to prevent delays in producing prisoners in courts due to staff shortages? (b) If not, why?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Friday, 10 April 2026 ·No. 23479 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/6046
Cite as: The Hon. Jagath Vithana. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 10 April 2026. No. 23479. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/6046