No government reaction to death of prison inmate, 24 hours later

Malta’s home affairs minister has not released any statement 24 hours since the death of a Corradino Correctional Facility inmate who tried taking his own life.

Colin Galea, 30, died in hospital after an attempted suicide at the Corradino Correctional Facility last week and died on Tuesday afternoon.

Warning signs of abuse at Corradino prison have been around since the appointment of Lt. Col. Alexander Dalli, a former AFM air-wing pilot. Malta now has the highest rate of prison suicides in the EU, according to data by the Council of Europe.

This was the 13th death in prison since 2018. In June, 29-year-old Kim Borg attempted suicide and died three weeks later in hospital.

After Galea's attempted suicide, the Home Affairs Ministry announced that it would be launching a board led by psychiatrist Anton Grech, to review suicide prevention measures at the prison.

The death of Galea provoked an outburst from media pundits like TV presenter Peppi Azzopardi, who has been at the forefront of prison rights activism in the last year. He shared a Facebook message from Galea’s mother, Isabelle Micallef, who said prison inmates were not treated with dignity inside Corradino. "My son was very unfortunate and although he was not a saint, he should not have been treated in this way.”