Editorial

An inmate claimed in court the other day that in the division to which he was allocated was an unbearable smell of drugs, heroin in particular. The man was testifying in a case of assault he had brought against five prisoners. The main reason for bringing the case, he told the court, was that he wanted to stop what he described as the intolerable circulation of drugs in the division he was in.

The Times followed up that claim and contacted the prison director, Sandro Gatt. It was interesting to learn that "a sachet in prison sells for four times (its) street value..." Interesting and curious because it begs the question as to how prisoners can still be able to afford and satisfy their habit.

More intriguing was the fact that the division in which the inmate in question was kept was inhabited by prisoners sentenced on drug-related cases, the complaining inmate being the only exception, Mr Gatt pointed out. It would, therefore, sound reasonable to assume that a close guard is kept on drug-trafficking insofar as these inmates are concerned. Not close enough, it would seem, but one must not be too dismissive.

The problem of drug possession by men, or women, behind bars is by no means peculiar to Malta. A concentration of dealers, traffickers and users must create its own market. The demand is there; all that is missing is an adequate supply. Bribery and corruption, perhaps even threats, as well as friends and relatives, see to that.

The prison population and the area of the precincts in which it dwells are smaller to those overseas and, yet, it is still possible to smuggle in drugs using one means or another despite strict surveillance and controls through random spot checks, body searches and sniffer dogs. Indeed, Mr Gatt said that "even the Gozo Bishop's car was checked... The Chief Justice was treated the same way when he paid a surprise visit recently".

All this was good to know and suggests a seriousness of approach that is difficult to fault. So was it a feather in the director's cap that a prison warden was found in possession of eight grammes of heroin and imprisoned for it. If a sachet consists of 0.05 grammes, possession of eight grammes would have fetched him a fortune.

Not enough is known about this case to determine exactly how this could have happened: whether it was a huge risk or knowledge that controls were such that encouraged one to have a go at making a small fortune. Yet, the people out here are assured that the latter is not the case and even Mr Gatt's car is subjected to searches.

This leaves few areas of infiltration and, of these, none can be more porous than visitors but even these are checked to some degree or other. Drugs have been found in food brought in from outside and one visitor was twice "caught with drugs hidden in parts of her body". Twice? Evidently, action taken first time round did not provide much of a deterrent.

It is probably correct to say, as the director did, that it is "almost impossible to eliminate" drugs in prison. However, it is also true it should be easier to succeed in doing so there than anywhere else. Incidentally, and not for the first time, a case that could have been seen through from beginning to end was not wound up. Has an inquiry been ordered? What does the Opposition think about the situation?