Of prison and political responsibility

By now, the sinister implications of Josette Bickle's conviction last week - and above all, the overwhelming suggestion (underscored by the judge in delivering sentence) of collusion by prison warders in a fully-fledged drug trafficking operation - should have sunk in.

Certainly there are indications that the general public is shocked, and not unreasonably expects an explanation for the state of affairs. But government's reaction to date has been surprisingly defensive and weak.

Tellingly, Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici responded to widespread criticism of inaction by claiming that the whole case against Bickle originated from an internal inquiry into prison conditions, after the former director resigned abruptly in 2008. This inquiry, he now reminds us, had been conducted at his own request.

But this only raises more questions than it answers... especially considering that the results of this inquiry have not to date been published, despite a blitz of official media requests.

So far, the government's only pretext for refusing publication is that certain inmates would be identified by name, resulting in possible recriminations taken against them. The concern is understandable, and to a point even admirable. But it is also unconvincing: after all, the ministry could always release an expurgated version of the report, in which references to individual inmates are simply blacked out.

Besides: there is mounting evidence that the same inquiry had likewise raised the possibility of involvement to some degree by the authorities in the drug trafficking operation. Many of the witnesses who testified against Bickle in court had also been interviewed by the inquiring team, and the report was subsequently handed to the Justice Ministry, the Attorney General (who incidentally today occupies the post of Chief Justice) and the Commissioner of Police.

It seems highly implausible that the same details that so shocked Mr Justice Michael Mallia - to the extent that he even specified that the 'verdict was not against Bickle but against the system' - would not also have been mentioned in that report. And yet, the only discernible action taken as a result of that report was against Bickle herself.

Where was the corresponding action to address the now evident systemic shortcomings? And now that the possibility (some would say near certainty) of collusion has been raised independently by a sitting judge in court: why has no action or investigation yet been undertaken into the current prison administrative set-up?

One fact that can be ascertained even without publication of the earlier inquiry report is that Mifsud Bonnici himself - who assumed responsibility for prisons only in 2008 - cannot be personally held responsible for anything preceding that date.

The man who was politically responsible for prison at the time of the institutionalized drug trafficking scandal (and who is now foreign minister and deputy prime minister) was Tonio Borg; and incredibly, he now claims not to have been informed of the situation at all.

It seems hard to believe that DR Borg, a lawyer by profession, would so casually disregard one of the longest established legal truisms: i.e., that ignorance of the law is no excuse. He seems unfamiliar also with the standard European attitude towards political responsibility at ministerial level, which echoes the same principle more or less to the letter.

It is therefore astounding to hear the man who was home affairs minister from 1998 to 2008 (i.e., a whole decade), claim to have been unaware of the seriousness of the prison drug situation, when the same situation was widely reported on in the local press. And yet there is mounting evidence that Tonio Borg had indeed been directly informed by several people, and on several different occasions.

The former head of the prisoners' visiting board, Mario Felice, insists that he had repeatedly warned the authorities about Bickle before 2008, and his resignation can now be seen as a final act of frustration at having been studiously ignored.

Elsewhere, a former prison director - Emmanuel Cassar - told this newspaper that he used to have regular meetings, both with minister Borg and with the permanent secretary at the time, and that the issue of drugs was prison was repeatedly raised.

How, then, can Borg now claim ignorance as his defence (ironically, a line of defence that the law courts would reject out of hand)?

Matters are greatly exacerbated when one considers how the justice ministry actually employed its time and resources between 2005 and 2008 (i.e., precisely the years when Bickle held sway at the female section of Corradino).

While the prison director and chairman of the visitor's board were desperately trying to draw Borg's attention to the severity of the situation in prison, the justice minister seemed far more interested in drumming up support for a private campaign to entrench Malta's abortion ban in the Constitution.

Even at the time, the obsessive drive with which Borg embarked on this personal crusade had raised questions about his competence as minister. He was criticized for wasting time and resources on an issue which was in any case already ably dealt with at law. (Abortion was and still is illegal - whether it takes a simple or two-thirds majority of the House to change this was really just an academic and quite pointless exercise, in a country where all parties agree to keep the practice illegal anyway.)

Bearing all this in mind, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's reaction to mounting criticism over the prison situation is likewise unconvincing. Faced with an apparent collapse in standards at Corradino, and an evident laissez-faire attitude by successive justice ministers - and with evidence that the situation was allowed to fester uncontrollably precisely through political apathy, inaction and misplaced priorities - it is clearly insufficient to insist, as Gonzi is now doing, that 'important reforms' have indeed been undertaken.

Clearly, the powers that be have lost control of this particular situation, with dangerous and potentially destabilizing consequences for society as a whole. Rather than boasting of its non-existent efforts to rectify this mess, government may wish to do a little soul searching instead.