ADPD call for public inquiry into prison managment, suicides

After another prison death as a result of a suicide attempt it is essential that government takes steps to subject the operational aspects of prison to a public inquiry. This was emphasised this morning by ADPD Deputy General Secretary Dr Melissa Bagley during a press conference in Paola, in front of the Corradino Correctional Facility.

Dr Bagley stated that even prison should be a place where human dignity is respected. “It is unacceptable for prison management to be based on threats and on instilling fear. Instead of rehabilitation, prison is the cause of mental and emotional illness. No one should be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment, not even in prison. Prison should be a place which helps the rehabilitation of prisoners.”

ADPD Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo emphasised that a recent proposal to do away with solitary confinement as punishment in prison made sense in view of research results which identifies the substantial psychological damage which such punishment causes. Cacopardo argued that the prison management "should not operate on the whims of its director, who justifies inhuman and degrading treatment by citing the reduction of access to drugs in prison."

ADPD said that Police and Military personnel should have no role in prison management, which it said should be taken up by personnel adequately trained in rehabilitation of inmantes. In a healthy democracy, Cacopardo said, the military and police have no role in managing civil prisons.

Cacopardo added that the Minister for the Interior "should desist from propping up Colonel Dalli." "The Minister, has through lack of action become an accomplice in the developing prison crisis. He is politically responsible for the repeated deaths and attempted suicides," he said.

The prison population in Malta increased by 15% between 2019 and 2020. This fact together with the statistic that 25% of the prison population are there on drug related cases indicates the importance we should attach to a quick shift of drug rehabilitation programmes away from the failed criminal justice model towards a decriminalised socio-medical model as practiced in Portugal.

"The suicide rate in our prisons is also alarmingly high when compared to that in other prisons. Prison needs social care workers, specialised educators and other professionally trained personnel. Instead, it has been unfortunately been transformed into a military camp," said the party.