Labour MP claims ‘explosion of drugs’ at CCF

Refusing to say Corradino Correctional Facility and insisting on referring to it simply as "the prisons" Labour MP Michael Falzon has claimed that "drug presence has exploded".

"It's chaos as usual in there, especially in the female section. The free-for-all attitude is incredible with persons with a history of drug abuse roaming freely around the corridors," he said. Falzon however failed to substantiate his claims and only said that he will reveal more next week in parliament when he'll be discussing the justice and home affairs motion.

Falzon said the delay in the introduction of parole was the result of government's procrastination and that prisoners might have to wait until September or October before it comes into force.

"On the other hand, I hope that government will not use parole as a safety valve to solve the overcrowding problem at the prisons, which has nothing 'correctional' about it," he insisted.

Falzon said if government was truly committed at allowing the CCF to live up to its name as a correctional facility, it would have never dismantled the dog section: "There is not even one dog sniffer when everyone knows the drug problem there exists."

Asked by journalists whether he could at least mention one good thing that Carm Mifsud Bonnici did in the past four years as the minister responsible for home affairs, Falzon said that while not everything was bad, it wasn't his position to comment.

"On a personal basis he's a very nice man," Falzon added.

Referring to Mifsud Bonnici's round-up of his ministry's work, Falzon said that what really mattered were results: "Talk is cheap ... results are gained and in this case they weren't achieved."