NB: As a rule, the prison administration of each institution was not pre-informed of the visit by the Commission. Hence, according to the mandate of the Commission, all prison visits were conducted without prior notice.3 This rule was observed to ensure the conditions of the prison were not altered or affected in any way prior to the Commission’s visit. An officer of the Human Rights Commission informed the Wariyapola Remand Prison of the Commission’s forthcoming visit, which resulted in the prison undertaking measures to change the conditions at the prison. As a result, the findings from Wariyapola Remand prison were excluded from this report because the findings would be compromised, and hence misrepresented. In order to maintain the proportions of convicted to remandee Kegalle Remand Prison was added to the sample of institutions. Although the data was not used in the analysis, a follow up SP meeting4 was conducted with the SP of Wariyapola Remand Prison to raise issues regarding prisoners’ treatment and conditions. Inmates were divided into the two general categories of remandee and convicted prisoners. The category of convicted prisoners also included condemned and life prisoners. The number of questionnaires to be administered for each category of prisoners was derived from the data provided by the DOP, setting out the total population breakdown of each prison as at 5 April 2018. The total number of prisoners held in all institutions within the purview of the DOP, as at 5 April 2018, totaled 18,426, with 17,524 male prisoners and 902 female prisoners. Of the total population of male prisoners, 13,870 inmates from the sample institutions were included in the sample of prisoners for this study, i.e. about 79% of the male prisoner population of Sri Lanka. Due to the small percentage of female prisoners in the total prison population (5%), the Commission administered questionnaires to all women in the sample prisons that the Commission visited in order to optimally uncover and identify the issues they faced. The number of female prisoners in the sample totaled 732, i.e. about 81% of the female prisoner population. Table 3.1: Breakdown of prisoner sample: Male Convicted Condemned/Life Remandee Total 5,187 1,504 7,179 13,870 Total Sample Population 3 4 Female 142 87 503 732 14,602 Human Rights Commission Act (No. 21 of 1996), s 28. For a detailed discussion, please refer chapter Postscript: Follow up 6