Corradino prison inmates left without direct access to psychiatrist

Prison inmates at Corradino Correctional Facility do not have direct access to in-house psychiatric care and have to be transported to Mount Carmel Hospital in Attard to be seen by a psychiatrist - a situation that has resulted directly in at least one escape attempt by an inmate, who later committed suicide in prison.

This unusual situation was brought to light by the recent death of inmate Julian Genovese, who committed suicide in an isolation cell in Division 6 (a maximum security block designed for violent and dangerous criminals, and used for punitive purposes by present and past prison administrations) following repeated requests for psychiatric treatment.

Genovese's death has raised a number of questions regarding administrative practices within the prison. It transpires that he was transferred to Division 6 specifically as a punishment for an attempted escape - the attempt having taken place at Mount Carmel Hospital, where he was sent to be seen by the official prison psychiatrist after exhibiting suicidal tendencies.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Security candidly admitted that a potential suicide case had been placed in isolation as punishment for attempting to escape: "Genovese was put in Division 6 for stricter surveillance after he escaped," the ministry official said in reply to questions from MaltaToday, adding that "inmates can [also] be housed in solitary confinement cells in order to quarantine them from infectious disease. Obviously they are not asked to follow the same regime used for solitary confinement purposes".

It remains unclear, however, what form of psychiatric treatment is available within the prison complex itself. Even before the Genovese suicide case, prisoners' rights advocacy group Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl (MDD) had drawn attention to the apparent lack of in-house psychiatry services, which were provided only at Mount Carmel.

A similar complaint was made in 2011 by the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), in a report specifically about the conditions of detention at CCF. "Following a brief visit to Mount Carmel Psychiatric Hospital, the CPT has expressed serious misgivings about the manner in which agitated or suicidal patients had on occasion been managed," the report noted.

Questions surrounding the treatment of psychiatric cases in CCF have meanwhile been exacerbated by a recent administrative change that was not made public by the authorities. A ministry spokesman this week confirmed that the former prison psychiatrist, John Spiteri no longer occupies that role, but stressed that this did not affect the standards of psychiatric care available to CCF inmates.

"John Spiteri's contract expired and was not renewed. He was replaced immediately by a psychiatrist who was provided by the pool of psychiatrists at Mount Carmel. The psychiatrist provided by Mount Carmel is available 24 hours, whenever needed."

Spiteri's contract is understood to have expired last week. The replacement psychiatrist - who has not so far been named - is likewise based at Mount Carmel, resulting in a situation whereby inmates needing psychiatric care still have to be physically transported to the Attard hospital, with all the risks this practice entails.

Attempts to determine what impact this same situation had in the Genovese case have however been stalled on account of an ongoing magisterial inquiry.

"No further comments can be made as there is a pending magisterial inquiry," the ministry official said. "However government will await the conclusions of the inquiry to assess whether there is any responsibility to be shouldered. The conclusions of the inquiry will be forwarded to the Prison Board Reform to establish whether there should be action to avoid future similar cases.