COLOMBO
Sri Lanka’s efforts to reduce prison overcrowding by reopening a colonial jail and recruiting more staff after a deadly riot left 28 people dead need to be underpinned by a commitment to international best practice, human rights advocates said on Friday. Eight prison officials and 20 prisoners died in two days of fighting between two groups of inmates at the prison in the coastal town of Negombo, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the commercial capital, Colombo, authorities said. Overcrowding was a key reason for the riot, advocates told Reuters, noting the problem was chronic in Sri Lanka. The Negombo prison was built to house about 650 inmates but held around 2,400 when the violence broke out.