Rehabilitation and aftercare of drug related women prisoners in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Many people grasping to drugs faced difficulty to detach themselves from the spell of drugs. Therefore, the number of drug related prisoners are increasing. This group has defined ?drug-related prisoners? as prisoners who are in custody for drug related offenses. The ratio of drug offenders in prison is relatively high. Moreover, there is an increasing number of female drug related prisoners. Therefore, this study is basically focused on female drug-related prisoners in Welikada and Kaluthara prisons. These drug-dependents have a high tendency of recidivism. The one of basic criticisms was that prisons do not take sufficient actions to reduce recidivism. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the rehabilitation and aftercare needs of this group and to propose an agenda to strengthen countermeasures available in prisons to reduce recidivism. This study has both qualitative and quantitative approach. Survey method and case study method were used to collect primary data. In addition, key informant interviews with several officers has been conducted. The survey sample consisted of 50 female drug-related prisoners and 10 case studies. Findings indicate that the imprisoned women are confronted with numerous severe and wide ranging problems. Moreover, recidivism ratio also high among them. It can be described through the process of imprisonment from arrest to release. Therefore the rehabilitation process is the most important factor in this regard. The rehabilitation programs in the prisons are inadequate and outdated. New rehabilitation process needs to be implemented to help drug-related female prisoners reintegrate into the society.