Prison CEO Simon Buttigieg has confirmed with The Malta Independent on Sunday that a series of measures has been taken to address the prison kitchen situation in order to “improve the service as a whole”.

His comments to this newsroom came after we had revealed that a number of prisoners had suffered from food poisoning earlier this month. Following this episode, a number of prisoners had gone on hunger strike to protest about the quality of food they were being served.

Informed sources had told us that the kitchen was in a disastrous state. “A number of tiles are cracked or missing and the worktops and the floor have a sticky oily film. The fans are also engulfed with dust,” sources said.

In a follow-up story, we revealed that a total of five inspections had been carried out by officers of the Health Inspectorate Unit at the Corradino Correctional Facility (CCF) general kitchen in the last year or so.

This was confirmed by the Health Secretariat after this newsroom asked whether any food safety inspections had been carried out at the prison kitchen in the past year. The food at the prison is prepared in-house.

In new developments, sources said that kitchen staff had been replaced. We were also told that a female prisoner has been assigned to work in the kitchen alongside male prisoners.

On this point Mr Buttigieg said: “Decisions regarding work carried out by inmates at CCF require management’s approval. The skills of the inmates are taken into account on a case-by-case basis as the work itself is regarded as a means of development of competences of the inmates concerned.”

This newsroom also asked whether there had been any form of abuse on the part of this female prisoner towards other female inmates after sources had claimed that the prisoner in question was ‘threatening’ other inmates into assembling Playmobil figures she was assigned to assemble herself.

Mr Buttigieg said that the CCF Administration had not been informed of any alleged abuse as indicated by this newsroom.