Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.
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Mahara Prison is a maximum security prison, and is one of the largest prisons in Sri Lanka. Situated in the town of Mahara in the Western Province, it was built in 1875 by the British colonial government to ease the congestion at the Slave Island prison. It was used to house the prisoners employed in crushing stones at the Mahara quarry. The stone was used to construct the Port of Colombo and its associated breakwaters. Since its establishment, it has had a police post attached to it.
Source: Wikipedia article lead, CC-BY-SA.
Capacity
—
Current population
—
Occupancy
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Year opened
1875
Operational
Figures from official sources · verified 28 May 2026 · methodology
Operator
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Population held
Mixed/unknown
Opened
1875
Region
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Security level
Maximum
Death-row facility
No
No conditions summary available yet.
No visiting information available.
No mailing information available.
Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.
No major issues documented in our database.
No public contact details available.
Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated
Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.
How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.
Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.
World Prisons. (2026). Mahara Prison. Retrieved July 21, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/mahara-prison
"Mahara Prison." World Prisons. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/mahara-prison.
@misc{worldprisons-mahara-prison,
author = {{World Prisons}},
title = {Mahara Prison},
year = {2026},
url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/mahara-prison},
urldate = {2026-07-21}
}