ALTERNATIVE TO HANGING
To Sri Lanka’s underworld whose income and power are mainly derived from the narcotics trade, nothing seems to be impossible. In this land like no other, not many moons ago was not an underworld character or a politician able to get a letter sent out from the then Prime Minister’s office ordering the customs to release a container that happened to contain narcotics? What happened to the character who was powerful enough to get this letter out to the Customs? What is the office that the crooked official who was in the Prime Minister’s office now holds? What explanation if any did the Prime Minister of the time offer? The country remains in the dark; and none appears to be one bit bothered.
If one crook could have taken the office of a Prime Minister for a ride, it is unimaginable what several kings of the underworld enjoying the safety and security of prison cannot do.
Way back in 1959 when I was attached to the CID undergoing training as an ASP I headed a surveillance team that detected Eddie Perera the notorious opium smuggler who was in prison custody leaving his General Hospital bed to which he had been chained and guarded by a prisons officer. He and the jail guard were picked up at 10 p.m. by an attractive woman who drove into the hospital premises unchecked. Having occupied a house in Colpetty until 5 a.m. they returned to the hospital. On a report made by the CID to the Commissioner of Prisons the guard was sacked and the latter’s immediate Superior a jailor was reprimanded for his laxity of supervision.
Corrupt prison staff
Today, it is public knowledge that with millions being lavished on the custodians, narcotics king-pins in death raw enjoy the best of luxuries within as well as outside the prison walls. But the dangerous and most disturbing factor is their ability, equipped with sophisticated communications equipment to direct underworld activities with the assistance of corrupt prison staff.
What is the government’s rationale behind the decision to hang the underworld narcotics kings? These powerful few have become the de facto administrators of the prisons in which they are incarcerated. All responsible for this chaotic state of affairs inside the prisons from the top officials down to the junior most guard must be held responsible. They have failed miserably to enforce the punishment of imprisonment resulting in hardcore inmates having their own way
A government that cannot say ‘boo’ to a goose and cringes in the face of heartless strikes by the arrogant medical fraternity, protesting students and even village women demanding repairs to their roads, that has failed to keep smart phones getting into the heads of prisoners has decided to make an absurd decision nay a hilarious one; hang all those who have outsmarted the Prisons administration!
True to form the government has begun to realize the imprudence of hanging after making the decision. The EU has only to say “We don’t want your fish,” and the hangmen probably proud products of our universities will have to hang themselves!
However, the discussion on ‘Hang or not to hang’ that appears to be going on endlessly consuming acres of newspaper space is indeed a soothing saline drip to a government clutching on to a few straws anchored in the mud. Momentarily through, it has smothered the peoples’ concern for the rising cost of essentials; food, fuel, transport, education or even the occasional tot!
Rigorous imprisonment for life
The most sensible alternative to capital punishment is obviously the vigorous enforcement of the punishment of rigorous imprisonment for life. A high security prison equipped with sophisticated security technology, located in an isolated area, managed by specially selected officers where inmates can be held incommunicado without the possibility of access to prohibited items especially communications equipment, drugs and alcohol, is the answer. A case in point is how the Prisons Authority of the Unites States, during the prohibition days of the early Thirties held the notorious Al Capone and other Mafia gangsters in the tiny island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay.
Even if smartphones had existed at that time the supremely isolated nature of Alcatraz would have made ‘Jamming’ feasible without affecting any other facility in the vicinity. Essential official communications could have been maintained (which can be done even today) by the installation of a restricted radio intercom system.
If one crook could have taken the office of a Prime Minister for a ride, it is unimaginable what several kings of the underworld enjoying the safety and security of prison cannot do.
Way back in 1959 when I was attached to the CID undergoing training as an ASP I headed a surveillance team that detected Eddie Perera the notorious opium smuggler who was in prison custody leaving his General Hospital bed to which he had been chained and guarded by a prisons officer. He and the jail guard were picked up at 10 p.m. by an attractive woman who drove into the hospital premises unchecked. Having occupied a house in Colpetty until 5 a.m. they returned to the hospital. On a report made by the CID to the Commissioner of Prisons the guard was sacked and the latter’s immediate Superior a jailor was reprimanded for his laxity of supervision.Corrupt prison staff
Today, it is public knowledge that with millions being lavished on the custodians, narcotics king-pins in death raw enjoy the best of luxuries within as well as outside the prison walls. But the dangerous and most disturbing factor is their ability, equipped with sophisticated communications equipment to direct underworld activities with the assistance of corrupt prison staff.
What is the government’s rationale behind the decision to hang the underworld narcotics kings? These powerful few have become the de facto administrators of the prisons in which they are incarcerated. All responsible for this chaotic state of affairs inside the prisons from the top officials down to the junior most guard must be held responsible. They have failed miserably to enforce the punishment of imprisonment resulting in hardcore inmates having their own way
A government that cannot say ‘boo’ to a goose and cringes in the face of heartless strikes by the arrogant medical fraternity, protesting students and even village women demanding repairs to their roads, that has failed to keep smart phones getting into the heads of prisoners has decided to make an absurd decision nay a hilarious one; hang all those who have outsmarted the Prisons administration!
True to form the government has begun to realize the imprudence of hanging after making the decision. The EU has only to say “We don’t want your fish,” and the hangmen probably proud products of our universities will have to hang themselves!
However, the discussion on ‘Hang or not to hang’ that appears to be going on endlessly consuming acres of newspaper space is indeed a soothing saline drip to a government clutching on to a few straws anchored in the mud. Momentarily through, it has smothered the peoples’ concern for the rising cost of essentials; food, fuel, transport, education or even the occasional tot!
Rigorous imprisonment for life
The most sensible alternative to capital punishment is obviously the vigorous enforcement of the punishment of rigorous imprisonment for life. A high security prison equipped with sophisticated security technology, located in an isolated area, managed by specially selected officers where inmates can be held incommunicado without the possibility of access to prohibited items especially communications equipment, drugs and alcohol, is the answer. A case in point is how the Prisons Authority of the Unites States, during the prohibition days of the early Thirties held the notorious Al Capone and other Mafia gangsters in the tiny island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay.
Even if smartphones had existed at that time the supremely isolated nature of Alcatraz would have made ‘Jamming’ feasible without affecting any other facility in the vicinity. Essential official communications could have been maintained (which can be done even today) by the installation of a restricted radio intercom system.
