Consultations over the Prison Board of Visitors should be completed next week and the way forward outlined after the chairman tendered his resignation on March 31.

Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said when contacted that he had spent the past weeks listening to all the parties involved and would be rounding up matters in the coming days; progress had been made.

Mario Felice had resigned because he felt he did not share the same values to life and health as the prison's administration. He had been asked to continue fulfilling his responsibilities until April 7, by which time somebody else should have been appointed.

However, consultations took longer than expected and Dr Felice said yesterday he had agreed to continue chairing the board until these were concluded.

"I am hoping to receive feedback on the situation next week," he said.

The situation emerged when prison director Sandro Gatt decided to place Melchior Spiteri in a maximum security cell early last month after a tip-off that he planned to escape just days before the March 8 general election.

Dr Felice had questioned the move, among other things, because he pointed out that the prison director was only authorised to take such action for precautionary security measures and in extraordinary circumstances.

"I have given this a lot of consideration but there comes a time where you're either complicit or you have to call a spade a spade and let the authorities face the reality of things and assume some responsibility for it," Dr Felice had told The Times.

This is not the first time Dr Felice resigned his post. In January the board stepped down en bloc over lack of dialogue with the prison's management, which it felt inhibited its functions, before resuming its duties.