The police have introduced a rudimentary, low-cost way of stopping suicides at its headquarters… covering the metal bars on cell windows with a plain metal sheet.
The move follows two suicide deaths at the general headquarters lock-up last year which had caused public outrage.
The police told The Sunday Times of Malta that the perforated metal sheeting had now been affixed to all windows as a simple solution to a complex problem.
“This measure has drastically reduced the possibility of individuals tying bed sheets or other material to windows,” the force said.
The police were contacted by this newspaper a year after it had pledged to introduce measures to reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts by those held under police custody.
Last year then-Police Commissioner Michael Cassar had said he would look into every possible solution to stop people from trying to take their lives while behind bars.
“The lock-up is not where people go to enjoy themselves and they do not want to be there. We have to be aware of this when we are tasked with custody,” he had said.
He was speaking after a 36-year-old German man was found hanged in a detention cell at the police headquarters last December.
The German man, from Stuttgart, a drug addict who was unemployed and homeless with no known family on the island, was facing low charges of drug possession.
His death had followed that of Martin Fenech, 39, from Żejtun, who had been found with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck after he was arrested in connection with an 11-kilogramme drug bust in October.
Among the solutions Mr Cassar had said could be introduced was the installation of CCTV equipment in cells. This, however, was shelved, with government sources citing as a main reason the price of introducing surveillance equipment in every cell.
Asked what else had been done to counter suicide in custody, the police said time-frames given to custody officers tasked with periodically checking each cell had been reviewed. The time and outcome of each inspection was now being logged by the inspecting custody officer.
Lock-up staff had also been given certified first-aid courses to help them assist anyone who did attempt to harm themselves as some officers on lock-up duty had not been trained on first aid response.
The police lock up, however, is not the only place where people in custody have turned to suicide.
At the beginning of this year a British inmate at Mount Carmel Hospital’s forensic ward hanged himself while facing drugs charges.
And, nine months later, in September, a prison inmate at the Corradino Correctional Facility was pronounced clinically brain dead after harming himself.
Mid-Dlam għad-Dawl, an inmate support foundation, has long lamented the lack of measures to prevent the number of suicide attempts in custody.
While the metal sheets and increased inspections were a welcome sign of change, the foundation reiterated past calls for increased support for inmates as a more effective solution to self-harm.
Who commits suicide in Malta?
Official statistics show men are 11 times more likely to commit suicide than women. Police figures show that more than 90 per cent, 120 of the 131, suicide victims between 2009 and 2013 were men.
Some 300 people committed suicide in Malta since 2005. Around a third were 50-59 year olds, a larger percentage than any other age group.
If you are feeling helpless, like there is no way out reach out for help the free-phone support line 179 is a professional confidential service that can help.
ivan.martin@timesofmalta.com