Tsunami Topples Wall, Frees Inmates

MATARA, Sri Lanka – The Southeast Asian tsunami sprang the entire prisoner population at a 400-inmate prison in Matara, Sri Lanka, when a wall of water knocked down one of the facility’s 15-foot walls.

There is likely never to be an exact count of how many inmates died in the tsunami and how many escaped both the prison and the water. Many Matara inmates have already been found dead, including eight inmates on work duty outside the prison who were crushed by the 12-foot wave.

Eighty-three of the escaped prisoners returned to the prison during the week following the deadly tsunami. Some of those who returned did so after checking how their families fared in the disaster and dealing with funeral arrangements. The returnees were all offenders with short sentences, officials said. To encourage more to return, the Sri Lankan government established an amnesty period through Jan. 9.

The colonial prison was built by the British 75 years ago and is located next to a densely packed community of small lanes and two-story houses on a peninsula between the Nilwala River and the sea. Citizens reported that wayward inmates often aided in the recovery effort. One group, before fleeing, saved the lives of three female jailers who were close to drowning.

Because the prison was no longer secure and both of its buses were damaged by the storm, officials asked the returnees to take the public bus down the road to another jail, and most complied. Some of those still believed to be at large include prisoners convicted of murder, rape, making bombs, possessing illegal weapons and other serious crimes.

The Matara facility, part of a network of 22 prison districts across Sri Lanka, has received four awards in recent years for its humane approach. Jailers said they expect to be cleared by any official investigation into the escapes, given that they closely followed all procedures.

Prison reconstruction began only days after the Dec. 26 tsunami, when a fence was erected where the wall was knocked down. All records in the prison were destroyed by the flood, but jailers were able to recover the weapons from the armory. Twenty-eight prisoners from other facilities were transferred to Matara to help with maintenance and reconstruction.