Gota’s labours - II
The armed forces, about eleven years ago, wrested control of the areas that had been under the LTTE. However, there are some places where the writ of the state still does not run, as we have argued in a previous comment. They are the country’s prisons, which have become a gated underworld of sorts. Convicted criminals enjoy unbridled freedom there thanks to some corrupt officers. We reported, yesterday, quoting a senior Police Narcotic Bureau officer that convicted underworld figures smuggled in mobile telephones into prisons by paying corrupt officers as much as Rs. 500,000 each. The state pens are also awash with narcotics and other banned items.
Corruption has eaten into the vitals of the prison system because successive governments have let the grass grow under their feet without grasping the nettle. The situation has become so bad that convicts have been carrying out their underworld operations from inside their cells for the last couple of decades. The task of cleansing the prison system is as uphill as the Labours of Hercules. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has had to clean the Augean stables that are our jails that stink to high heaven.
President Rajapaksa seems determined to neutralise the underworld and rid the prisons of corrupt practices that have stood the convicted drug lords and other criminals in good stead. He read the riot act to a group of senior prison officers, at a meeting, on Monday. He spoke plainly, when he told them those who could not carry out their duties and functions properly had to go. He asked how any person with a conscience and an iota of self-respect could allow criminals to smuggle phones into prisons. He gave the officers a choice between reforming themselves and being reformed. That earful was long overdue. The people had given him a mandate to do a job and he would do it, come what may, said the President, pointing out the absurdity of criminals in jail enjoying freedom to do what they are serving prison terms for. He has struck a responsive chord with all law-abiding citizens who live in fear of dangerous criminals.
It is, however, doubtful whether the prison officers will be able to do as the President says. The corrupt elements among them are extremely powerful because of their links to drug cartels and other crime syndicates; they are ready to go to any extent to safeguard their interests.
One may recall that, in 1997, an upright prison officer named Upali Tennakoon suffered a violent death at the hands of an underworld gang because he had been instrumental in tracing drugs and weapons in prison. The prison guards in league with criminals must be traced, arrested and prosecuted if the President’s attempts to prevent criminals serving sentences from running their gangs are to reach fruition.
There is a pressing need for a blanket ban on mobile phones inside prisons, and that should apply to prison officers as well. Cell phone jammers should be installed in all prisons.
Corrupt guards instigate prisoners to violence when the police conduct search operations in prisons. Raids, however, must go on; there is no other way to find drugs, arms and other such banned items that find their way into jails. Precautions, however, must be taken to prevent clashes between convicts and the police during search operations.
The easiest way to trace the corrupt guards in the pay of criminals is to follow the money trail. All prison officers must be made to declare their assets and liabilities annually, and tainted prison officers placed under surveillance. If the existing laws do not provide for such action, new ones must be made.
The armed forces, about eleven years ago, wrested control of the areas that had been under the LTTE. However, there are some places where the writ of the state still does not run, as we have argued in a previous comment. They are the country’s prisons, which have become a gated underworld of sorts. Convicted criminals enjoy unbridled freedom there thanks to some corrupt officers. We reported, yesterday, quoting a senior Police Narcotic Bureau officer that convicted underworld figures smuggled in mobile telephones into prisons by paying corrupt officers as much as Rs. 500,000 each. The state pens are also awash with narcotics and other banned items.
Corruption has eaten into the vitals of the prison system because successive governments have let the grass grow under their feet without grasping the nettle. The situation has become so bad that convicts have been carrying out their underworld operations from inside their cells for the last couple of decades. The task of cleansing the prison system is as uphill as the Labours of Hercules. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has had to clean the Augean stables that are our jails that stink to high heaven.
President Rajapaksa seems determined to neutralise the underworld and rid the prisons of corrupt practices that have stood the convicted drug lords and other criminals in good stead. He read the riot act to a group of senior prison officers, at a meeting, on Monday. He spoke plainly, when he told them those who could not carry out their duties and functions properly had to go. He asked how any person with a conscience and an iota of self-respect could allow criminals to smuggle phones into prisons. He gave the officers a choice between reforming themselves and being reformed. That earful was long overdue. The people had given him a mandate to do a job and he would do it, come what may, said the President, pointing out the absurdity of criminals in jail enjoying freedom to do what they are serving prison terms for. He has struck a responsive chord with all law-abiding citizens who live in fear of dangerous criminals.
It is, however, doubtful whether the prison officers will be able to do as the President says. The corrupt elements among them are extremely powerful because of their links to drug cartels and other crime syndicates; they are ready to go to any extent to safeguard their interests.
One may recall that, in 1997, an upright prison officer named Upali Tennakoon suffered a violent death at the hands of an underworld gang because he had been instrumental in tracing drugs and weapons in prison. The prison guards in league with criminals must be traced, arrested and prosecuted if the President’s attempts to prevent criminals serving sentences from running their gangs are to reach fruition.
There is a pressing need for a blanket ban on mobile phones inside prisons, and that should apply to prison officers as well. Cell phone jammers should be installed in all prisons.
Corrupt guards instigate prisoners to violence when the police conduct search operations in prisons. Raids, however, must go on; there is no other way to find drugs, arms and other such banned items that find their way into jails. Precautions, however, must be taken to prevent clashes between convicts and the police during search operations.
The easiest way to trace the corrupt guards in the pay of criminals is to follow the money trail. All prison officers must be made to declare their assets and liabilities annually, and tainted prison officers placed under surveillance. If the existing laws do not provide for such action, new ones must be made.
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