Prison should not be a place for drugs but a place for education and rehabilitation, Home Affairs Minister Mallia said this afternoon. Dr Mallia was speaking at a visit to the newly opened art workshop, where inmates will be given art classes.

The cabinet, said the minister, is working so that the prison and other correctional facilities are truly a place for rehabilitation, whilst retaining discipline and order. “We will fight illegal drugs both in and out of the prison.”

Dr Mallia also announced that two new sniffer dogs have arrived from abroad. The dogs will not be kept at the prisons like before, when they had ended up being “prisoners ‘pets.” The dogs will be used to carry out unannounced spot checks in search for drugs. “We do not want inmates to take drugs that kill them. We want them to change their ways and become better persons.”

The Home Affairs Minister referred to an earlier visit to the YOURS centre in Mtahleb, where new gym facilities were installed. He also spoke of other measures taken at the prison in the past few months, including the opening of a music room, a playroom where inmates can spend time with their children, and a sewing workshop. “We as a government believe that offenders should not have their dignity taken away, even if they lose their freedom.”

Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia, who also attended the event said his ministry will be hosting an art exhibition comprising of paintings and curtains produced by prison inmates. The art pieces will be on sale, with some of the proceeds going into bank accounts the prisoners can access on their release and the rest going into the RISE foundation and into a victims’ fund. The project is being coordinated by Marygrace Pisani.

Joining in, Dr Mallia said the prison will employ full-time professional art lecturers to teach art classes to the prisoners.