Prison food will be seeing a leap in quality in the coming weeks, the Home Affairs Ministry said on Thursday in reaction to a European Court of Human Rights judgement which awarded an inmate €5,000.

The court found that Jean Pierre Abdilla, who, back in 2009, had been sentenced to 16 years in jail over drug-related charges and fined €40,000, had lacked an effective remedy concerning detention conditions before the local courts.

It concluded, however, that the overall conditions at Corradino did not subject the prisoner to distress or hardship of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention.

Mr Abdilla had complained of bad conditions in detention, a squalid and foul-smelling environment, lack of ventilation, meagre earning from a “work and pay” scheme and non-nutritious food served from a dirty kitchen.

In a statement on Thursday, the government said several of the shortcomings mentioned took place under a Nationalist administration and nothing had been done about them. As a result, the country had been fined.

The ministry, the Governance Board, and the prison management were committed to carry out all the necessary changes in a holistic manner.

A lot of importance was being given to the judgement and to recommendations from the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, with most being implemented to improve facilities and services.

A complaints structure was already in place as prisoners could lodge complaints with the Visitors’ Board.

The quality of food was to improve in the coming weeks and talks were underway to improve payments for the work done by residents. Part of the facility was to be converted into a workplace so that prisoners would not have to work in cells.

The facility’s infrastructure started to be evaluated in the past weeks and this evaluation should lead to a more modern building in the coming years.