Stricter controls are being introduced to ensure drugs do not find their way into prison as part of a long-term reform strategy that started being implemented this week.
Terms of reference also looking into whether correctional system used is effective and whether inmates’ rights are safeguarded
A reform committee, set up by Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, has started working on evaluating various elements within the Corradino Correctional Facility.
The committee will draw up a detailed report by the end of July but, in the meantime, it is coming up with recommendations that will be implemented by the prison’s management.
The CCF management started implementing a number of urgent measures which needed to be taken right away. This is happening in parallel with the compilation of a thorough report on the situation at the CCF which will recommend further changes which have been long overdue, a ministry spokeswoman said.
The first change under way is to have two prison directors, one for operations and another to handle inmates’ reform.
One of the directors has already been identified as being the current acting director Emanuel Camilleri. The second director is still to be appointed.
“We have also taken immediate steps to improve on safety of prisoners and prison wardens. Acting director Manuel Camilleri is also meeting prisoners and staff on a weekly basis to see to their issues,” she said.
The spokeswoman added the reform committee was made up of the ministry’s Permanent Secretary Kevin Mahoney, Chief of Staff Silvio Scerri, Josie Brincat, George Busuttil, Caesar Grech and Assistant Commissioner Ray Zammit.
Over the past years it has been an open secret that drugs were smuggled inside the prison walls.
Earlier this month a 32-year-old woman was jailed for a year for transporting drugs to a prisoner while in court.
The committee will recommend ways to address this problem.
The committee’s terms of reference, seen by Times of Malta, also include looking into whether the correctional system used is effective and whether the rights of inmates are safeguarded.
It will also recommend improvements to the prison security system, explore the introduction of seclusion, evaluate the level of training of warders, look into the way the prison tuck shop is run and the manner in which services and goods are purchased.
The committee will also look into the forensic ward at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital and the manner in which the young offenders’ unit operates and suggest improvements.
It will look into setting up a staff code of ethics and implementing the parole system that is still not being used even though the Restorative Justice Act, which brought parole into the legal system, came into force in February 2012.
The reform was announced last month after the Home Affairs Minister made a surprise visit to the prison on April 7 and found that some warders who were meant to be on duty were absent.
The minister commissioned a report into the behaviour of the warders and also set up the reform committee to look at the bigger picture.