Prison inmate dies in hospital five months after self-harm incident

A prison inmate who had been recovering in hospital after trying to harm himself last November has died.

Keith Gravina, 42, was jailed for four and a half years in November 2023 after a court convicted him of assaulting a woman in 2018 and causing her grievous injuries.

However, shortly after being imprisoned for the 2018 assault, Gravina was hospitalised following a self-harming incident in prison. He remained in hospital ever since. Gravina died on Thursday.

He was also facing separate criminal proceedings for assault, rape and torture of another woman at his Mrieħel diner in September last year. He was also charged with supplying cocaine and disobeying police orders. Gravina pleaded not guilty and the case against him was still pending.

A spokesperson for the Corrective Services Agency that runs the Corradino prison confirmed the inmate had been receiving treatment in hospital ever since the November incident. She said an autopsy will determine the cause of death.

She added that camera footage of the November incident shows that the inmate was "assisted within seconds" that the incident was flagged by fellow inmates. "The footage shows that assistance was requested at 8.38 and assistance was duly provided at 8.39," she added.

Gravina’s attempted suicide last year was the first such incident in three years since a change in leadership took place at the Corradino Correctional Facility.

In November 2021, then prison director Alex Dalli suspended himself amid mounting concerns over a string of fatal suicides and attempted self-harm incidents at the CCF.

Dalli’s draconian disciplinary measures had raised eyebrows and concern with an inquiry board recommending several changes. Dalli was eventually not reinstated in his role and his methods were slammed by the courts in several libel cases he filed against MaltaToday and Illum, all of which he lost.

Meanwhile, commenting on the latest incident, the Nationalist Party expressed concern on the situation in prison.

Home affairs spokesperson Darren Carabott and mental health spokesperson Ian Vassallo said prison should not only be a place of incarceration but one of rehabilitation where the safety of prisoners is safeguarded.

The PN called for transparency on the latest incident to put the minds of relatives of prison inmates at rest that their loved ones are being cared for. It also called for the mental health needs of inmates to be prioritised.

“The prison administration is responsible for the wellbeing of every inmate in a place with stringent security and where incidents like these still happen,” Carabott and Vassallo said.

In response, the CSA said it is prioritising the wellbeing of inmates and providing mental health support.

"Incidents of self-harm and harm to other inmates have been reduced drastically during the past years through various measures that work to better equip staff, such as the ongoing training of all officers in mental health first aid and the recent training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy to all professional staff working within CSA," the CSA spokesperson said.