Falzon strikes out over Mifsud Bonnici ‘failings’

Opposition home affairs spokesman Michael Falzon yesterday spent some two-and-a-half hours taking Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici to task over a long list of shortcomings in the police, security and other sectors when opening the debate on the censure motion against the minister.

Drugs cultivated behind prison walls

Dr Falzon denied that the motion was a case of political opportunism. The motive behind the motion was unacceptable inaction and nonchalance in the justice and home affairs sectors. The motion represented the people’s need for good governance in the face of grave shortcomings.

The split in the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry had proven the opposition right and made the motion more important.

Dr Falzon said serious shortcomings in the Civil Protection Department had not yet been addressed, not even when it came to vehicles with false number plates and decrepit fire engines. The communications system had been allowed to deteriorate. People kept being paid overtime without actually turning up for work.

A generator had disappeared from the volunteers’ section and after weeks had turned up on a local website for sale at €7,000. He said there was rampant theft from the volunteers’ section of the CPD.

Dr Falzon referred to what he called the scandal of the CPD firefighting training facility at Ħal Far that had been rented out to a private company. Very costly and essential breathing equipment had to be removed from Ħal Far because the new occupier did not want it there.

Turning to the “demotivated” Police Corps, Dr Falzon said that when Dr Mifsud Bonnici boasted about the number of people joining the police, he never said anything about the phenomenal rate of those leaving. No exit interviews were made and no interest shown in the reasons for the exodus.

A feeling of discrimination pervaded the force, especially in part-time jobs allowed to some but not to others.

There was no sense of priorities, moving experienced people from sensitive places and sending them to secondary postings.

The situation at Corradino Corrective Facility was “chaos as usual”, Dr Falzon said. He pointed out that the 2008 report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, published four years later, made 58 recommendations that were still not implemented.

The report had said that there was no chain of command in the prison facility, the management structure had failed and there was lack of accountability at every level. The committee also recommended urgent action against the drug culture, seeing as more than 31 per cent of inmates were considered drug users.

Dr Falzon said that there was no long-term strategy to curb drug abuse. Over the last few days there were three instances where drugs were found in the female section and one case where drugs were being cultivated within the prison walls.

There were no sniffer or dual capability dogs in prison and random urine testing was only held on persons who applied for prison leave. Abuses were rampant, with an official being promoted even though he was caught red-handed stealing from a locker.

There were regular thefts from the prison stores and items sold in the tuck shop were more expensive than elsewhere, while the same tuck shop declared miserable profits at the end of the year. Dr Falzon asked what happened to inquiries on deaths in prison.

No health and safety checks were held and fire drills were a rarity. The SRT equipment was inadequate. No psychological help was given to prisoners and long-term staff.

Dr Falzon said that the Reparative Justice Law should not be seen as a magic solution to reduce prison overcrowding.

The law, he said, came into force last January but it was still not being effectively implemented because the necessary structures were not in place.

The minister had said the first prisoners could qualify for parole in September or October. Dr Falzon said he hoped prisoners would not end up filing court cases because they were entitled to parole and it was not granted to them because of inadequate structures. On the other hand, the prisoners themselves should be mentally prepared for parole.

He asked what had become of victim mediation and compensation.