The Prison Board's attitude of continuously playing cat and dog is pathetic, to say the least. Sometimes it seems to verge on obsession.

Instead of being unremittingly cynical, the board would definitely do better if it had to be coactive. Not necessarily seeing eye to eye but at least synchronal. Its consistently contemptuous bearing is getting it nowhere.

According to the report carried in The Times last Tuesday, Prison Board chairman Mario Felice admitted that the board is "not functional". Even the dogs in the street know this. However, it is a long shot to suggest, as he seemed to do, that this must be the fault of someone else. The Prison Board's dysfunction is its own undoing.

Ask any prisoner, any officer, and most will give you the same postcard answer: The Prison Board is imperceptible in their everyday lives. The rest would say it is sterile. Vital contact with the grassroots is direly scarce.

Moreover, prisoners - or anyone else, for that matter - receive absolutely no feedback from the board. A "constructive dialogue" with prisoners is non-existent. All of this is truly lamentable and perhaps not an inconsequential part of the problem facing the Prison Board.

Indeed, listening skills are not the only, or maybe not even the foremost, requirements expected of the Prison Board by law. Much more is demanded. An attentive presence may be considered to be a means to a further end, namely, to advise the Minister for Home Affairs on the treatment, rehabilitation, work, activity and disciplinary administration of prisoners and on the state of the prison premises and administration (Prison Regulations [PR], article 104). This is enough to keep the board's hands full.

The law gives the board broad powers. But these are not being used to any constructive purpose. In certain respects the board does not even satisfy its legal obligations. For instance, it is obliged to "make an annual report to the minister at the end of each year concerning the state of the prison and its administration" (PR, 116), but it has not done so for many years. It is also obliged to "regularly see each prisoner either at his place of work or confinement" (PR, 106), and, yet, whole prison divisions have not had the privilege of seeing one single member of the Prison Board for months on end.

The board is obliged by law to ask prisoners "if they have any complaints to make with regard to their treatment in the prison" (PR, 106, 3). Not only does the board not ask but neither does it have in place any system to enable prisoners to file complaints.

Furthermore, more than a year ago, the board launched an inquest into a prisoner's miscarriage apparently due to prison staff incompetence. It has still not concluded the investigation.

One would expect more ingenuity and profitable use of resources on the part of the board. Inane antagonism is doing nothing to improve anything. This has been going on for years on end while many prisoners are left vulnerable and isolated. There is so much the Prison Board can do. It could, for instance, start to be critical structurally. Instead, it is continually engaged in futile squabbles and every now and then throws its toys out of the pram. This is dull as ditchwater.

It is more than clear that the present formation of the Prison Board has been "not functional" for a number of years. It needs to be reworked. This is one promise the Minister for Home Affairs did not honour. Back in 2003, Tonio Borg had pledged to revise the board's formation, but, five years on, we are still waiting.

This is part of the problem. The Prison Board's troubles, or anyone's exasperation with the Prison Board, emanate from a lack of political will on the part of the government to renew its vision for the prisons and, thus, improve our penal system. This may indeed be a tough row to hoe but surely not an impossible one.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.