Situation at young offenders rehabilitation unit ‘unacceptable’ – Coleiro Preca

Underage inmates at the Corradino Correctional Facility are offered no rehabilitation programme and family minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said the government is committed to addressing the "unacceptable" situation.

Coleiro Preca was speaking following a visit to the YOURS (Young Offenders Unit Rehabilitation Services) unit within the Corradino Correctional Facility, where she briefly met the 30 or so inmates.

YOURS houses young male offenders over 15 years of age and the family minister said that inmates are only provided with educational lessons twice a week and spend most of the day watching television and playing video games on a single Playstation available at the unit.

"Offenders must carry their responsibilities, however the government has a duty to provide a correctional programme," Coleiro Preca said.

The government was looking at alternative solutions, which would house rehabilitation services for young offenders at a different location, Coleiro Preca said, adding that in the long-term the solutions should go beyond incarceration.

While explaining that the inmates are given little time and space for physical exercise, Coleiro Preca said: "You cannot have a correctional facility without a programme. The unproductive situation is no way to address difficulties faced by these persons."

The minister visited the unit shortly and noted that in the coming weeks she would be returning for another visit to spend more time with the young men spending time at the unit and she would also be visiting the young female inmates who do not have a separate section but are kept at the women's division at the Corradino Correctional Facility.

In the short-term the government aims to offer proper rehabilitation services and identify the reasons why young people were ending up under lock.

"We need to understand what pushed these people to carry out infringements and we need to ensure a continuity of care of these persons once they leave the facility," she said, adding that most inmates experiences economic problems and were homeless before and after entering YOURS.

Explaining that one particular inmate she met today was on his fourth term, Coleiro Preca stressed the need to have a multidisciplinary team to support the young people, noting that "something is wrong" with the so-called rehabilitation services offered.

The government would be working in collaboration with civil society organisations who Coleiro Preca described as "key stakeholders."

Over two years ago, the former Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had said that the inmates housed at YOURS would be transferred to a location outside the prison compound, however the move never materialised.

In January 2011, Mifsud Bonnici had declared that within three months from the announcement the young offenders unit rehabilitation services were to be moved out of Corradino to an undisclosed location.

An 2011 report by the EU Justice Commission had shown that Malta has the highest rate of young offenders among its prison population, with 6.1% of the 600-odd inmates at the Corradino Correctional Facility (CCF) falling under the EU's definition of juveniles.