Teenage girl moved out of prison at last

A justice ministry official confirmed that the 16-year-old offender – who cannot be named by court order – was yesterday moved to an institution falling under one of the Agencies of the Ministry responsible for Social Policy.

“It took a couple of days to make the necessary arrangements to make her transfer possible,” the official said.

The case goes back to March last year, when the girl in question – identified as ‘AB’ in court records – was found guilty of stealing a wallet containing €2,329.37, and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.

After taking into consideration numerous factors – including former convictions, drug problems and the social background of the accused – the Court of Criminal Appeal last week upheld the original sentence, but recommended that she be held at a shelter under Police custody instead of prison.

Nonetheless she remained at Corradino until yesterday: highlighting the lack of preparation for this sort of social case by the authorities concerned.

This is not the first time that the lack of facilities to house problem female teenagers has surfaced in the context of prison. In 2008, the case of a 13-year-old sentenced to seven days’ imprisonment made headlines after it transpired that the juvenile wing of Corradino – Young Offenders Unit Rehabilitation Services (YOURS) – was not geared for female inmates at all.

Instead, she was placed in an isolation cell outside the juvenile section, and subsequently transferred to Mount Carmel Hospital in Attard: which serves as a clinical hospital for psychiatric cases and other conditions such as alcoholism or substance abuse.

The case had provoked outrage among social workers at the time.

Three years later, it seems the situation remains unchanged, and there are still no permanent facilities for young female offenders handed down prison sentences by the courts.