ABSTRACT
Sri Lanka is a middle-income country with poorly developed forensic mental health and correctional rehabilitation services. The only dedicated forensic mental health rehabilitation unit is in Colombo in the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition, prisons and community-based organisations provide vocation and drug rehabilitation to the forensic population. Overcrowding in prisons and forensic units, inadequate resource allocation, a shortage of human resources and outdated mental health laws hamper the development of forensic rehabilitation services in the country. The authors were unable to identify any overarching model of rehabilitation used in mental health or correctional services. Health services use biological treatment as the mainstay of intervention with little emphasis on psychosocial rehabilitation. Prisons offer rehabilitation to only a small portion of inmates who are close to the end of their sentence. Despite challenges, Sri Lanka appears to recognise the importance of rehabilitation and appears to allocate resources for that purpose throughout its correctional and health systems. Religion (especially Buddhism) plays an important role in guiding rehabilitation activities as well as helping attract resources for this purpose. Development of forensic rehabilitation services will be less of a priority for the Sri Lankan government in the wake of the recent economic crisis.
