Sri Lanka plans to open a new prison in a disused hospital building, the justice ministry announced Wednesday after a riot killed 20 inmates and eight guards at an overcrowded jail.
The deadly violence has intensified scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s chronically overcrowded jails, with official figures showing prisons were operating at roughly four times their intended capacity.
Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara issued an order to take over a section of the disused hospital in the island’s south to accommodate inmates from other facilities.
“We need to set up security measures and other essentials to start the new prison at Mahamodara in Galle District,” a ministry official told AFP, without providing a specific timeline.
The decision comes days after Sri Lanka’s deadliest prison riot in years, which saw clashes break out Sunday between rival gangs at Negombo Prison, north of the capital Colombo.
The violence killed 28 people and wounded more than 100 others, some of whom remain in critical condition.
The coffins of slain guards, draped in the national flag, were brought to the prison department headquarters in Colombo on Wednesday for colleagues to pay their final respects.
A UN statement issued in Colombo following the deadly riot said that “overcrowding, outdated practices and poor conditions in places of detention have long been recognized as critical challenges across prison systems in Sri Lanka.”
Rioting at another prison in December 2020 killed 11 inmates and wounded 117 during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading the government to release hundreds of inmates from overcrowded jails.