The penitentiary system came in for a scathing attack during a talk at the University, with Dominican priest Fr Mark Montebello saying it was built on “a big lie” that society and people in power wanted to believe.

The authorities cannot downplay the drug situation and they also cannot claim they were not aware of the problem

Fr Montebello said that, despite being called a correctional facility, the Corradino prison had nothing correctional about it.

“We say we love prisoners and they should be helped to reform but in reality none of these exist,” he said, adding that authorities and society lacked the honesty to admit that the name correctional facility was just a façade.

Fr Montebello was one of two guests during a debate on campus organised by leftist organisation Pulse and a group representing criminology students.

The other guest was former convict Meinrad Calleja, who spent about 11 years behind bars after being found guilty in 2001 of drug trafficking and cocaine possession during and before November 1993.

The event turned out to be more of a question-and-answer session between the host and the two guests as students in the audience remained silent.

This lack of participation even prompted one lecturer present to comment on the University’s failure to motivate critical thinking in its students.

Officials from the Home Affairs Ministry and the prison authorities were invited to be on the panel but they were unable to attend. In what was probably his most radical remark, Fr Montebello said the prison should be closed and inmates sent to hospital or a therapeutic school.

“The theory that you can educate someone by punishing him is discredited today,” he said.

He also took umbrage at the word rehabilitation and insisted that all it meant was teaching criminals to continue to do what they did but learning how not to be caught.

“Rehabilitation is a poisonous word that insults prisoners because the true intention is to turn them into individuals like us who are part of an economic, social and religious order that glorifies capitalism.”

He then asked how many people who evaded taxes ended up in prison and insisted the problem was that honesty was in short supply.

Turning his focus on the drug situation in prison, Fr Montebello said the problem was real but insisted the place reflected what was happening in society.

“The prison drug problem did not start and end with Josette Bickle,” he said, with reference to the convict described by fellow inmates as the “queen” of prison during a recent drug trial.

Fr Montebello said he had reported, on many occasions in the past, particular prison cells that were turned into drug shops but no action was taken.

“The authorities cannot downplay the drug situation and they also cannot claim they were not aware of the problem.”

He added it made no sense to send drug addicts to prison and mused that in 100 years’ time people would be laughing at today’s practices.

The priest said journalists also had a responsibility not to perpetuate the predominant idea that prison was a monstrous place.

Mr Calleja was less emphatic in his words but no less critical of the situation. He did not speak about the actions that had landed him in prison.

He said the people managing prison should not be police officers and the system must not revolve around a militarised regime.

“Prison must be more humane in its approach and the prison board should be more forthcoming in investigating allegations of human rights abuses.”

The system must offer practical help to inmates and their families, he said, calling for a general amnesty for prisoners as Malta approached its 50th year of independence in 2014.

“Prisoners have not benefitted from amnesties for years and this will be a sign of compassion towards inmates and their families,” Mr Calleja said.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com