Not all the prisoners serving time at the Corradino Correctional Facility are being provided with customised care plans, negatively affecting their chances of being granted parole.
Both George Busuttil, director of Mid-Dlam għad-Dawl, an organisation that helps ex-inmates and their families, and prison chaplain Franco Fenech highlighted the pressing need for specialised sentence plans to be drafted for each and every inmate, identifying the person’s needs and risks.
Risk factors can be wide ranging and are usually linked to why the offence was committed, so factors such as substance misuse, relationships, accommodation, education and financial management often need to be addressed.
“There are not enough psychologists, social workers and care-plan coordinators to keep up with the number of prisoners,” Mr Busuttil said.
A spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Ministry said yesterday the recruitment process was still in progress for these posts.
Mr Busuttil said each tailor-made care plan had to be regularly followed up. The Parole Board would in turn need to examine the care plans and their progress in order to determine whether an inmate deserved parole.
“In my view, the Parole Board seems to work in very mysterious ways. At the moment, there is an inmate with a terminal illness. That makes him eligible to apply for parole earlier than normally allowed. Yet months have rolled by and nothing has happened.”
Society would benefit greatly from rehabilitated inmates, especially in light of the fact that Malta has a very high rate of repeat offenders – around 56 per cent
The first parole licence was issued in September 2013 and since then, 50 inmates out of 290 applicants have been granted parole, the ministry spokeswoman said.
Fr Fenech said the provision of sentence plans was a long time coming but inmates were still not being provided with the plans which were so crucial for rehabilitation.
“Inmates vastly differ from each other. There are 17-year-olds and 70-year-olds, and they hail from over 50 different nationalities.
“And despite the name change to a correctional facility, the prison’s purpose still remains a punitive one.”
Society would benefit greatly from rehabilitated inmates, especially in light of the fact that Malta has a very high rate of repeat offenders, with the figure hovering at around the 56 per cent mark.
Further crimes meant further victims, Fr Fenech pointed out.
“It pains me deeply when people say: ‘They don’t change’.
“In its way, the prison provides a sheltered environment.
“A number of inmates get back on their feet, slowly gainingthe respect of the authoritiesby behaving.
“But once that inmate emerges, he is faced with incredible hostility from society.
“Perhaps a person committed the first crime out of choice – but he is forced by society to commit subsequent crimes.
“Carefully drafted care plans are crucial for helping keep former inmates from returning.”