Pay-to-free Sri Lanka inmates

By Frances Harrison
BBC correspondent in Colombo

Charitable-minded Sri Lankans are being encouraged to spend a few dollars to buy freedom for a petty criminal.

The country's new commissioner general of prisons, Rumy Marzook, has appealed to the public to help finance the release of up to 1,000 men and women.

They are stuck in jail because they are too poor to pay fines as small as 500 Sri Lankan rupees ($5).

Sri Lanka's prisons are woefully overcrowded but there are hundreds of prisoners sentenced to years of rigorous imprisonment simply because they default on court fines.

Resistance to rehabilitation

A former magistrate, Rumy Marzook was so shocked when he took over as commissioner of prisons that he started paying some of the fines out of his own pocket.

Typical cases included convictions for possession of just half a bottle of illicit liquor, which carries a fine of $100. If the accused fails to pay, he or she goes to jail for a year.

As Mr Marzook explained, a man who could afford such a large fine in Sri Lanka would not be drinking illicit brews but the best Scotch.

The new commissioner is fighting public attitudes which say prisoners should be made to suffer.

He says he is trying to introduce the idea that prisoners are human beings who need rehabilitation, not punishment.

For the first time the public can come forward and pay criminals' fines and secure their release.

But though some people have helped, there has been initial reluctance for fear that the scheme will facilitate the release of hardened convicts.

Mr Marzook says nobody convicted of a serious crime will be released and he argues that the cost of keeping a person in jail - nearly $4 a day - far exceeds the amount they owe the state and is a terrible drain on government resources.