Welikada Prison

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Building Information
Welikada Prison
Name	Welikada Prison
Location	Welikada, Colombo
Country	Sri Lanka
Architect
Client	British Government, Sri Lankan Government
Construction Start Date	1841
Completion Date	1841

The Welikada Prison is a maximum security prison and is the largest prison in Sri Lanka. It was built in 1841 by the British colonial government under Governor Cameron. The prison covers and area of 48 acres. It is over-crowded with about 1700 detainees exceeding the actual member that could be accommodated. The prison also has a gallows (although not used since 1959) and has its own hospital too. The prison is administrated by the Department of Prisons.

Following the attempted military coup in 1962, the arrested military and police officers remanded,pending trail in a special section at Welikada prison called the Magazine Section. A special security detachment was selected called the composite guard to guard these officers from the Ceylon Light Infantry with Major A Hulangamuwa in Charge.

1 Core Functions of the Welikada Prison
2 Famous inmates
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Core Functions of the Welikada Prison

Detention of prisoners on first conviction
Categorizing of convicted prisoners on admission and transferring them to relevant prisons.
Detention of condemned prisoners.
Production of suspects to Kesbewa and Moratuwa courts
Provision of vocational training to prisoners
Launching of welfare and rehabilitation programs for prisoners.

[edit] Famous inmates

D S Senanayake - National hero, independence activist and first prime minister of Ceylon
F R Senanayake - National hero and independence activist
Captain Henry Pedris - National hero and martyr of the independence movement
Anagarika Dharmapala - National hero, independence activist and leading figure of the Buddhist revival
Colonel F. C. de Saram - A leader of the attempted military corp of 1962
Bombardier Gratien Fernando - Leader of the Cocos islands mutiny
Douglas Devananda - Tamil politician and a cabinetminister.
Suresh Perera - former Sri Lankan cricketer
Sepala Ekanayake - Airline hijacker