[WATCH] Prison to become more disabled-friendly

Justyne Caruana on making Corradino prison accessible to persons with disability • Video by Chris Mangion

How should convicted sex offenders be rehabilitated in society? • Video by Chris Mangion

Changes at the Corradino Correctional Facility will make the prison more accessible to inmates with a disability, the chairman for the National Commission of People with a Disability announced.

“We must stop imagining that people with disability are angels who cannot make mistakes,” Oliver Scicluna said. “We’re people too, and there are seven people with a disability in prison.”

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said that ramps have recently been installed by the prison entrance and the prison chapel for wheelchair-using inmates, and that one prison cell is also equipped with a ramp.

“Obese prisoners are being encouraged to take up physical activity and prison-guards-in-training are being taught about how to deal with disabled inmates,” Abela said. “A sign language interpreter will also be hired to help the hard-of-hearing inmates out”

He added that the passing of the gender identity bill will result in transsexual inmates getting to choose whether to get locked up in the male or female divisions, and that more psychiatric and social help will be offered to inmates with mental health problems.” 

“Obviously, it is particularly difficult to recover from mental health problems while in prison,” Abela said. “However, although prisoners are paying for their mistakes by losing their liberty, their human dignity should never be taken away from them.

“My aim is to see as many prisoners rehabilitated as possible, with few relapses.” 

'Sex offender rehabilitation line drawn at work with children' 

In comments to MaltaToday, Abela said that while convicted sex offenders should be reintegrated into society, they should not be allowed to work with children.

“Should a teacher convicted of sex crimes be allowed to return to his former job?” Abela questioned. “We need to look at the reintegration of sex offenders from the aspect of vulnerable people.”

The news that football club Hibernians FC were interested in signing convicted rapist Ched Evans led to local social debate on how and if convicted rapists should be allowed to re-integrate into society. A common argument was that Evans should not be allowed to return to professional football because footballers are looked up to as role models.

When asked whether he thinks that released sex offenders should be allowed to find employment in a job where they can be viewed as role models, Abela remained coy.

“Several lines of work, including teachers, can be seen as role-model jobs,” he said. “However, if, for example, a young boy sees a footballer taking drugs, he may be influenced to follow suit. As a famous footballer, Evans had a greater responsibility than most.”