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| Saturday, 25 October 2003 |
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Four walls closing in Beyond the sky high walls and the immensely padlocked gates is a totally different world - a world of young girls, elderly women in their seventies and mothers with toddlers clutching to their hands going about their daily errands clad in white. They sew, weave, paint and cook like all other women. But behind the smiling faces there is an almost uniform guilt, regret and frustration unknown to an ordinary female, in the Female Ward of the Welikada prison, the heart of all other prisons in the country. by Rajmi Manatunga The Welikada prison, located in one of the densely populated areas of the country provides shelter for men and women who are either remanded as suspects or convicted for crimes. Among all its wards, the Female ward of this prison merits attention owing to the fact that it is the centre for all other female prison wards in the country including the Galle and Negambo prisons.
According to prison authorities, around 10 women suspected or convicted for crime arrive at the Welikada female ward every day - the majority of them jailed on the widespread offences of drug trafficking and prostitution. "Around 80 per cent of women who are sent here have being found guilty of one of these two offences. Most of those who are convicted for trafficking dangerous drugs are merely pawns in major drug trafficking rackets of either drug dealers or their own husbands or sons," Chief Jailor of the Female Ward Kumari Ratnaweera says. Nandawathi is one such woman who is spending her seventh year in jail on charges of abetting a drug business carried out by her son. At the age of seventy when a person usually retires from all strivings of life she is serving a 12 year sentence in the Welikada prison at the expense of her own son who is evading arrest. There were only a handful of women who had been charged for the socalled 'serious' offences like murder, assault and conspiracy.
The prisoners convicted of such offences that vouch for severe penalties including life sentences, are held in tiny cells with tight security and are allowed to step out only at a specified time of day. Among them are four LTTE suspects including a woman who had allegedly abetted the attempt to assassinate the President. Parvati, convicted for life for the murder of two, spends her time at the hospital unit of the ward unlike her fellow women prisoners. She is suffering from a lung cancer and receives special attention from the authorities. A housemaid in a rich house in Colombo five years ago, she poisoned her masters' food for the trivial reason that they treated the other servants better than her. "We are trying to relieve her sentence so that she can go to a proper hospital and get the treatments required," Ratnaweera adds. It is amazing how life can in a split second turn out for the worst if the numerous evil thoughts common to any human mind are ever put into action. These women belong to the category who did that mistake and got themselves locked up both physically and socially. "We always do our best to treat the inmates here as ordinary women and ensure that they are not dealt with inhumanly. Of course, there are times you have to be stern and secure discipline inside the ward. But otherwise they are like children in our care," Ratnaweera, charged with the giant task of reforming criminals at the same time treating them like human beings, explains.
Prisoners' rights, a word unknown and undesirable for many some years back is beginning to get some meaning inside the Welikada female ward. With the recent change in the top seats in prison authorities a number of developments have been initiated for the well being of female inmates. Among them are the construction of a special medical unit, a conference hall and also a garment factory that will enable these women to enhance their skills. Another important initiative launched by the prisons authorities is a programme to free women who are stranded in the prison unable to pay their bail. According to prison authorities, this particular category of prisoners comprise the majority of the 395 inmates in the Welikada female prison and have been there for a long period simply because there is nobody to bail them out. But under the new programme several such women have been bailed out with the assistance of donors and the Prisons Commissioner himself. Given the positive developments that are taking place, it should also be admitted that these women prisoners still suffer from the lack of infrastructure and sanitation facilities while the present staff is hopelessly inadequate to run the institution properly. Though the ward requires a staff of 100, only 80 officials are available. To top it all, 28 jailors are required to attend court proceedings daily basis. Prisoners may look 'inhuman' for many who view them through blinkers. But one encounter with these women behind bars who have simply given into their emotional outbursts or taken up a criminal career to eke out a living, is sufficient to realise that they are also human beings with feelings and a conscience. Gone are the days where retribution was the objective of punishment and it is now time for us to ensure prisoners their accessibility into the society as reformed human beings. |
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