Functions of Corrections.
P.H.M. Ratnayaka - Sri Lanka.
The rehabilitation function of Corrections in Sri Lanka has been largely the responsibility of Prison Department.
Due to deleterious effects of imprisonment, a fact realized through years of experience and over-crowding of Prisons due to many sociao-economic factors the Correctional Administrators were compelled to bring to the notice of the Authorities the urgent need to review the existing Penal System.
The above situation has resulted in the emergence of the concept of Community based corrections like in many other countries.
Since then there has been two
fold developments noticed.
[1] From 1970s onward, the Prison Department began to introduce
non-supervised or semi-supervised Community projects for prisoners
with proven good behaviour. They are Parole/Release on Licence,
Home Leave and Work Release projects. This is in addition to
moving the bulk of the non-dangerous and short-term prisoners
to Open Prisons and Prison Work Camps with minimum supervision.
[2] New legislation was brought in to introduce Probation, Community
Service Orders and Mediation Boards, to prevent unnecessary admissions
to prisons and to adopt more effecitve and less-expensive correctional
measures.
The Prison organized schemes have shown successful results with negligible failure rates. However, due to necessity of adopting caution to prevent wrong persons being released and also due to administrative reasons such as lack of trained staff, difficulty in finding jobs for work release projects and financial constraints the prisoners diversion to these schemes has been slow.
Probation, Community Service Orders, and Mediation Boards are being administered by separate Departments. The Probation which started and enjoyed its hey'day under Prison Department is now administered by Probation Department. The pgoress of this excellent non-custodial scheme began to show down in the recent past due to disinclination of courts to make probation orders and administrative difficulties.
The Scheme of Community based Correction Orders which started a few months ago after the legal provision being made under a new Act is gaining grounds showing good results.
Mediation Boards have proved during the last decade that they are capable of restricting effectively the non-serious offences and disputes unnecessarily going before our courts. They have been able to bring the Offender, Victim and the Community together to resolve most of their disputes to the satisfaction of all parties concerned in a process which is less-expensive.
The future of Rehabilitation function of Corrections in our country will largely depend on the Community based Correctional projects not only due to lack of accommodation in Prisons, but also due to realization of the General public of the paucity of benefits which could be achieved by locking more and more people in jails.
