NCJ Number
74348
Date Published
1980
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This report provides a general overview of crime rates and correctional trends in Sri Lanka since the late 1960's.
Abstract
The data supplied principally represented offenses classified as 'grave crimes,' which include abduction, arson, burglary, cattle stealing, exposure of children, various forms of homicide, and property offenses. The total of such crimes was 31,325 in 1968; in 1978 is was 62,934, representing a 101.1 percent increase. Similarly striking is the increase in the number of persons involved in crime over the same period: 46,405 offenders were sentenced in 1968 and 78,983 in 1978, representing a 70 percent increase. The gravest problem facing Sri Lankan corrections is the overcrowding of remand prisons, since no facilities have been built to accommodate a 100.5 percent increase in the numbers of offender being placed on remand. Overcrowding, however, exists only among the remand population and has not extended to the convicted population since the actual number of convicted prisoners dropped from 12,200 to 12,005 between 1968 to 1978. Additional trends in Sri Lankan crime include a higher rate of increase for offenses against property than for offenses against persons and an annual decrease in the number of persons placed on probation. The majority of prison sentences are under 6 months, and a large number of those sentences to prison are under 30 years of age. Furthermore, the number of persons admitted to prison for nonpayment of fines is considerably high. While recidivism rates in Sri Lanka are decreasing, the number of women prisoners is increasing rapidly. Borstal admissions are decreasing, while an increasing number of juvenile offenders are being sentenced to prison. Nine tables are supplied.