100 prisoners in jail for inability to pay fines to be freed

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan prison authorities have decided to free more than 100 prisoners who are serving jail terms because of their inability to pay fines, in an attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19 within crowded prisons, according to The Associated Press.

By Saturday, 4,121 prisoners had tested positive, along with 129 officers, in five prisons in different parts of the country.

Sri Lankan prisons are highly overcrowded, with more than 26,000 inmates in facilities with the capacity for 10,000.

On Saturday, prison authorities said about 150 inmates who are serving jail terms because they could not pay the fines would be released under a special pardon announced by the government, in order to ease the congestion at the prisons.

Authorities have been releasing prisoners on various grounds since December.

Sri Lanka has seen a fresh outbreak of the disease since October when two clusters — one centered on a garment factory and other on a fish market — emerged in the capital, Colombo, and its suburbs. The prison cluster emerged later.