Sri Lanka tackles jail crime

Mobile phones are being used to commit crimes from inside prison

Sri Lanka's prison authorities are to set up phone-jamming devices to prevent inmates from using mobile phones to conduct criminal activity from their cells.

Closed-circuit television systems will also be installed in prisons so the authorities can keep a closer eye on what goes on inside the country's jails.

General Rumy Marzook, Sri Lanka's Prisons Commissioner, told the BBC that tenders had been put out for the installation of jamming devices in prisons.

He added that CCTV cameras had already been installed in the main prison in the capital, Colombo.

Corrupt officers

An army rapid action unit is also at his disposal as part of measures to stop criminals from operating from within the prison, added the general.

Sri Lankan prisons hold around 25,000 inmates, including those who have been remanded in custody by magistrates pending police investigations.

"One of the key problems is the use of mobile phones within the prison by convicts who sometimes lead their criminal gangs from inside the prison," a jail official said.

That problem is compounded because some visitors and a number of corrupt officers are also involved in smuggling mobile phones, drugs and other illegal items into prisons.