Sri Lanka, July 29 -- "The degree of civilisation of a society can be judged by entering its prisons."

This aphorism is sometimes attributed to the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky and sometimes to the French philosopher Voltaire. Whoever said it, it rings true.

Describing the horrific overcrowding in our prisons is no longer necessary. The Negombo calamity has done that better than anyone could. What is now needed is quick action to prevent a recurrence and thereby drag our civilisation out from the ditch.

The most practical is to first focus on remand prisoners who amount to around 70 percent of the total. Just in Colombo, New Magazine and Colombo Remand Prisons held 29,745 unconvicted men in 2024, more than double the 12,592 housed ...