Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Sri Lanka’s government is preparing legislation that would allow courts to place suspects under house arrest instead of remanding them, aiming to ease the country’s severe prison overcrowding, a senior official said, AzerNEWS reports, citing foreign media.

Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara stated on Thursday that Sri Lanka’s prisons, designed to hold about 10,500 inmates, currently house nearly 39,000—almost four times their capacity.

He noted that remand prisoners are the main contributor to overcrowding, with roughly 28,000 inmates in pre-trial detention, including around 20,000 held on drug-related charges.

Under the proposed law, courts would have the authority to impose home detention in appropriate cases rather than sending suspects to prison, which could significantly reduce congestion in the penal system.

Nanayakkara also highlighted that Sri Lanka currently lacks a structured mechanism to review or reduce sentences for prisoners serving life terms or facing the death penalty. To address this, the government has appointed a committee to explore the possibility of a sentence-reduction framework for long-term inmates.

Experts suggest that Sri Lanka’s move mirrors global trends in criminal justice reform, where alternative sentencing and home detention programs are increasingly used to reduce prison populations and reintegrate offenders into society. If implemented effectively, this law could not only ease overcrowding but also reduce the financial burden of the penal system and improve living conditions for inmates.