Prison needs an Ombudsman, not just an inquiry

It says something about the situation at the Corradino Correctional Facility – Malta’s only prison – that news of yet another suicide attempt, over the last few days, did not really come as any surprise at all.

On Sunday, the Correctional Services Agency said a 30-year-old Maltese prison inmate had to hospitalised, after being “found inside his cell after an attempted suicide”.

This is the second such case since June 16; and just two months earlier – in April – the Council of Europe’s ‘Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations for 2020’ found that Malta had the highest suicide rate in European prisons – 25.2 per 10,000 inmates – after Iceland.

From this perspective, perhaps the most significant aspect of this latest Corradino suicide attempt is that – for the first time – it has forced the government to finally concede that something is indeed very rotten, in the State of CCF.

Home Affairs minister Byron Camilleri has now appointed a board of inquiry to review suicide prevention measures at the prison. The board’s remit includes an evaluation of the procedures used in prison to assess the mental and physical health of inmates, as well as support measures for drug dependents.

Nonetheless, there is a lot more to investigate, within Malta’s punitive system, than the high rate of prison suicide alone. These cases, after all, have to be added to a long litany of disturbing stories of prison life: illustrated also by the egregious lack of accountability from that facility’s leadership.

This includes both Director of Prisons Alex Dalli – whose ‘disciplinarian’ methods have time and again been called into question– and also Byron Camilleri himself: who has often been accused of minimising, or ignoring the situation altogether.

Indeed, one could argue that Camilleri had little choice but to hold an independent inquiry, on this occasion: given that our prison fatality rate is now regarded as being among the worst in the EU.

But we must also acknowledge that it is the prison system itself – in its entirety – that is severely in need of reform.

The same CoE report also suggests that Malta had the highest European growth rate in incarceration between 2019 and 2020: resulting in a severely overcrowded prison, which includes scores of people serving mandatory six-month sentences for minor offences as ‘attempted illegal exit from the country’ – basically, a ‘victimless crime’.

There is also a disproportionately high population of inmates who are still awaiting commencement of their legal procedures… and as such, often have no real reason to even be in prison at all.

All this adds up to a situation that endangers not only the prisoners themselves, but also the administrative staff. Moreover, it serves to further reduce any trust people may still have in Malta’s correctional system.

From this perspective, it is Malta’s prison system as a whole – which, apart from CCDF, includes all detention centres for illegal entrants to Malta; asylum seekers detained for illegal entry; and mental health facilities that incarcerate people - that should be subject to oversight. And this is a job that requires more than just a random ‘board of inquiry’.

Ideally, what CCF needs is a permanent, fully state-funded, independent Prison Ombudsman: who is able to access and inspect prisons upon demand; to obtain documents and data (that are currently off-limits to press and public); to speak confidentially with prisoners and staff; and to create a new link with incarcerated people and their families, their representatives, charities, victim organisations, and the public.

The Office should be equipped with inspections section, and also a complaints investigation section (supplanting the government-appointed boards); and could be used to provide information, as appropriate, to inmates, family members, representatives of inmates - even prison staff - and others, regarding the rights of inmates.

It would also be tasked to monitor conditions of confinement; recommend best practices as related to the health, safety, welfare, and rehabilitation of inmates; collect and analyse data related to complaints and incidents inside prisons; oversee prison conditions and staffing; as well as inspect each detention facility in Malta at least twice a year, with publicly-issued periodic inspection reports, and an annual report with recommendations on the state of Maltese detention centres.

Like other Ombudsman offices, this oversight body would be separate from the government executive, and have the authority to investigate any unresolved complaints from incarcerated people or their families, if the detention centre fails to do so after all administrative remedies have been exhausted.

The Ombudsman should also be supported by a consultative council of stakeholders: a representative from inmates, the detention and corrections staff, prisoners’ rights advocates or charities, and a government representation, for periodical meeting.

Creating such an office would surely go a long way – much further than any one-off inquiry ever possibly could - towards restoring public faith in Malta’s broken prison system.