Updated 7.55pm - Added ministry statement
There were 14 overdoses at the Corradino Correctional Facility in the past few weeks, Times of Malta has learnt.
This sudden spike comes as the prison is currently seeing what sources describe as an unprecedented amount of drugs, especially synthetic drugs.
Just last week, Times of Malta reported how a large quantity of drugs were found in a culvert outside the prison in Paola while several inmates were caught with illegal substances and mobile phones in their cells.
Synthetic drugs are becoming very common within the prison walls with sources close to the central operations saying how the prison authorities seemed to be at a loss on what needed to be done to prevent more drugs entering what is supposed to be the country’s most secure correctional facility.
Sources said that the situation was so bad that drugs were also found in Division Six, which is the prison’s most secure part where the most vulnerable prisoners or those who were facing internal disciplinary action are usually placed.
In all cases, the inmates were treated at the clinic while others were taken to hospital for further treatment
The 14 overdoses took place over the past seven weeks. In all cases, the inmates were treated at the clinic while others were taken to hospital for further treatment.
“The prison is currently experiencing something it has never seen before. It is becoming increasingly easier to find drugs inside here than outside,” one source told the Times of Malta.
Another source said relatives were heard complaining about amounts of money they were forking out to drug suppliers who turn up at their doors expecting to be paid for the amount of drugs being purchased by their loved one inside prison.
Last week, an inmate was seen receiving something from his father while he was sitting at the back of the courtroom, waiting for his case to be called.
The prisoner was taken to the lock-up downstairs where a sachet containing a considerable amount of a greenish substance, believed to be cocaine, was found during a search.
More drugs had been traced when a sachet dropped out of one of the prisoners’ pocket during a brawl between the two inmates outside Division Three.
A subsequent raid on the prisoner’s cell yielded a mobile phone, hidden under the mattress.
Questions sent to the Home Affairs Ministry about the situation at the Corradino Correctional Facility remained unanswered at the time of writing.
'Drug-infested' prison - PN
The Nationalist Party said the situation in prison had deteriorated to such an extent that instead of providing the opportunity for people to reform themselves, they were being held in a "drug-infested" prison.
The PN called on Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia to explain what had led to this situation and how the authorities were seemingly helpless when faced with the problem.
"Whoever's in prison has a right to a clean environment, free of drugs. Whoever is supplying these drugs should be brought to justice."
New measures in the pipeline - Home Affairs Ministry
In a statement, the Home Affairs Ministry said that CCF guards had conducted 696 searches in prison cells since April 1, as well as 200 intensive searches of CCF staff.
These numbers did not take into account searches inmates underwent every time they returned from community work schemes, or the daily searches of prison workers every time they entered the facility. Sniffer dogs were also deployed whenever a vehicle entered prison grounds, the ministry said.
The ministry said that it was keen to see more prisoners undergo drug rehabilitation programmes with Caritas, and added that new control measures would be unveiled in the months to come.