Female prison inmates are to be offered work by a textiles firm to assist in their rehabilitation, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia said this morning.

He said the authorities would be making more courses available for those inmates who wished to learn a trade.

He made the announcement during a visit to the female ward of the prisons accompanied by Social Dialogue Minister Helena Dalli.

The minister urged the inmates to take the opportunities offered to help them rehabilitate themselves, to believe in themselves and to work so that society could welcome them back within in. 

He also pointed to Criminal Law amendments, currently before parliament, aimed at reducing the time persons spent under preventive arrest when they filed an early guilty plea.

Accompanying the ministers on their visit was the Malta Eurovision winning group Firelight which sang the winning song.