A recent government audit based on data collected between 2015-2022 notes that the prison capacity has been exceeded by 232%.

The report is based on data collected between 2015 and 2022. It is noted that the number of inmates in the overall prison system in Sri Lanka increased from 139% to 232% of the capacity of the prisons. 

The overcrowding in prisons has also led to several other issues, including a lack of adequate space and sanitation facilities. As per the performance audit, there was a shortage of 187 toilets in 27 prisons, and 287 of the existing toilets were in a condition of repair, while 14 prisons across the island have a shortage of 108,689 square feet of space. Meanwhile, the insufficient space for female inmates in cells and wards in the Negombo and Vavuniya Prisons as at 1 July 2022, was 240 and 141 square feet,

The publication does not capture the recent arrests following the Sri Lankan government's anti-narcotics crackdown, in which 30,000 arrests have been made.  Operation Yuktiya has drawn condemnation from the United Nations.

The UN human rights agency slammed the operation and called on the government to reassess its strategy with a human rights-based approach.

“We are very concerned that authorities in Sri Lanka are adopting a heavily security-based response to the country’s drugs problem," read a statement issued by Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and a group of 30 rights organisations urged the government to cease the crackdown and release any people arrested without reasonable evidence.

Despite international concerns, the Sri Lanka police said that they would launch a new phase of the drug bust operation to arrest over 40,000 identified suspects 

in recent years high profile arrests of Sri Lankan military and Police for drug possessions are common. Sri Lankan state forces have been implicated in drug trafficking, over a dozen Sri Lankan police officers from the country’s Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) were arrested for their alleged involvement in an illegal drug ring. Speaking in parliament in 2020 JVP MP, Vijitha Herath, claimed that the murder of Makandure Madush, a notorious drug “kingpin” who was under police custody at the Maligawatte Housing complex, was done to protect 80 politicians complicit in drug trafficking. The rise in drug use and trafficking is alleged to have been connected to senior Sri Lankan politicians.

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