What’s it about?

The Anuradhapura Prisons featured as the main public partner, in the launch phase of Warehouse Project’s No Holds Prisons Project which aims to engage long-term with the theme of Inmate rehabilitation, through creativity, artistic expression, capacity building and technology transfer.

Partners Involved

A group of private donors that included Tashali and Roshith Perera, Directors of Transprime Haulage, Natasha and Isuru Fonseka, founders of Fit.lk and heads of Wow-One Volunteers, Dushyantha and Gianee De Silva, founders of Sozo Beverages and Ramila Abeyesekera, Director, Consolidated Business Systems, kicked off the first initiative under the No Holds Prisons Project on 18th September 2023 with the donation of an oil expeller.

Tell Us More

Under the direction of the Department of Prisons, Sri Lanka currently offers vocational training to inmates as part of the rehabilitation process covering the areas of agriculture, canning, carpentry, hand loom, and soap & phenyl making. Inmates at the Anuradhapura Prisons were skilled and engaged in soap making, with the proceeds of stocks sold, going toward prisoner welfare. However, oil for the production of the soap was dependent on outside suppliers, directly impacting flow of supply and pricing. The addition of an oil extractor at the Anuradhapura prisons means that production can be consistent and raw material costs can stay at a bare minimum, ensuring a higher percentage contributed toward prisoner welfare. It further provides for a new skills' development opportunity, as inmates will now be versed in the entirety of the soap-making process.

What Next?

This is simply one small part. Conceptualization of the larger project was based on the hope that, a collection of smaller initiatives, which includes this donation, could provide greater purpose for inmates who are often a forgotten segment of society. The No Holds Prisons project hopes to establish that incarceration can be a new beginning, the birth of a new skill set and the perspective change on the relations between inmates and the outside world.