![Gossip Lanka News [English]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYm2aFFq-bIW1nWX-RrqnPFoIsVos6_VCVz8BpLt0QJi55GNXHXC2fugeRvL0qUStEuCfs7Sfu6ZiSlhrkldxfGuE_wzy5gitY6rMZ2KSi8VBbGvkgXLks37RwZV-4-HKbWiNLRxB8C_r1e4z3mpxFTMPDJPEADoG8E-bZteWFipeD5KNGbjvCfqEfKw=s300 "Gossip Lanka News [English]")
The Prison Headquarters has dropped a bombshell statistic: 47 little children are currently living inside Sri Lanka’s prisons with their mothers. These tiny inmates — 20 boys and 27 girls — have spent their childhood behind bars, not because of their own crimes, but because their mothers are locked up.
Between January 1 and September 27 this year, a total of 1,483 women have been imprisoned across the island for various offences. Of them, 229 have already been convicted, while hundreds more await trial. The numbers are sobering, but here’s the gossip sting — a huge portion are tied to drugs.
In just the first seven months of this year, 184 women were jailed for narcotics offences:
97 for heroin,
75 for “Ice” (methamphetamine),
8 for cannabis.
Compare this to last year, and the crisis looks worse. In 2024, 885 women were jailed, with a staggering 369 drug cases among them (199 heroin, 138 Ice). That means women’s drug convictions have surged dramatically in just one year.
The Right to Information Act revealed another layer: the personal cost. In 2024, the state spent Rs. 1,411 per day on each inmate, amounting to over Rs. 516,000 annually. Nearly half of that goes into food: Rs. 697 per day, or more than Rs. 255,000 per prisoner per year. Multiply that by the rising number of inmates — and it’s clear who’s footing the bill.
The personal details make it even murkier. Last year, 655 of the imprisoned women were married; 278 of them were drug convicts. Among 98 unmarried women, 65 were jailed on drug charges. The drug web is cutting across family life, marriage, and motherhood alike.
So here’s the gossip takeaway: Sri Lanka’s prisons are overflowing with women trapped by drugs, and their babies are paying the price. The state feeds, houses, and raises children in cells — while politicians argue over morality outside.
As one prison official whispered off record: “Behind every heroin case, there’s a broken family. But when the children start growing up inside, that’s not just a prison crisis — that’s a national shame.”