The Home Affairs Ministry has denied that physically disabled prisoners are dependent on the goodwill of their fellow inmates, saying assistance is available if needed.
“Whenever the need arises for officers to assist prisoners with physical disabilities, the facility medical officers issue the necessary guidelines for each particular case,” a ministry spokesman said.
All prisoners have access to nursing staff on the premises daily from 7am to 9pm and medical services available after this time if required, the spokesman said.
The Sunday Times contacted the Home Affairs Ministry after lawyer Tonio Azzopardi wrote a letter in December about the experience of his physically disabled client who spent several days in Malta’s only prison awaiting bail.
According to Dr Azzopardi, no nursing assistance or special care was available to his one-armed client and the only help he received was from fellow inmates.
“The days this person spent in a Maltese prison constituted nothing less than degrading and inhuman treatment,” Dr Azzopardi wrote.
These claims were backed up by Mark Vella, director of Christian outreach organisation Prison Fellowship Malta, who said disabled inmates “live at the mercy of other prisoners”.
George Busuttil, director of prisoners’ advocacy group Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl, said “Corradino was not built with these people (with physical disabilities) in mind”.
Prisoners in both the old and new sections of Corradino are housed in cells across several floors accessed by stairs.
The Home Affairs Ministry pointed out that a large part of the Corradino Correctional Facility was built in 1850.
It is a listed building, which limits the scope of structural interventions.
Nevertheless, the Homes Affairs Ministry said accessibility to the old wings is being improved in the ongoing refurbishment programme.
At present the visitor’s area, known as Tad-Debituri, is being refurbished and will be accessible to inmates and visitors who are wheelchair users once these works are completed.
Wheelchair-bound inmates are allocated a cell on the ground floor of the central part of the facility where they can move to the shower rooms and the yard independently, the ministry said.
From there, they can proceed to the Education Unit, the Inmates Services Unit office and legal counselling office unaided.
Other facilities, such as the chapel, can be accessed with minimal assistance from prison officers, the ministry added.
In “exceptional circumstances”, prisoners with severe physical disabilities unable to care for themselves have been referred to medical institutions where adequate care could be provided under surveillance.
pcooke@timesofmalta.com