Every few years, we hear of an isolated case (indeed sometimes a bunch of them) where an inmate has been discharged from prison, only to run straight out and buy heroin and die of an overdose.
We will not delve into the merits of the case which took place last week, but as a senior official from Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl put it, it is “nobody’s fault, but everyone’s fault’.
It is no secret that there is a drug trade within the Corradino Correctional Facility, just as there is a drug trade in any other jail around the world.
The difference between the trade going on in prison and the trade going on in the street is that the drugs are heavily watered down. This keeps customers coming back for more, and the drugs can be stretched further. For those who do not know, drug sellers mix heroin with coffee, dirt, soil and all manner of impurities to stretch it out further.
Other inmates simply cannot get hold of the drugs or do not want to, they stay clean for the duration of their incarceration, only to go searching for drugs at the first possible opportunity, sometimes mere hours after having been released.
The crux of the issue, as in the real cause of overdoses, is that inmates will have been used to taking very weak doses of drugs, or none at all, only to then go and seek the first ‘good’ hit which they might have had in months or years. The consequence – the body cannot cope. They lose consciousness, their lungs fill with fluid, and they drown in their own bodily fluids. It is horrible, it is shocking to think of, and it is a waste of life, which are the precise reasons why we are being so graphic about it.
Many will argue that you cannot prevent a person from going to the nearest drug den as soon as they are free citizens. Granted, you cannot. Will is a very strong thing and when it is misplaced or misguided, it brings about consequences. In cases such as these, the consequence is death.
But where do we go from here? The argument put forward by Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl is poignant – and it is true. It is not the fault of any individual, but it is the fault of Maltese society as a whole.
There needs to be more mentoring and monitoring of inmates while they are in prison, and when they are released, particularly in the first 24-72 hours of their release. Various studies in the world have pointed out that this is when former inmates are the most vulnerable.
They are elated to be out, but those feelings soon wash away, as soon as they realise that they do not have much going for them and that there is no one to tell them what to do. Some turn to booze, some turn to drugs, others commit a petty crime because they have become institutionalised and want to go back to prison where it is ‘safe’. Very few are those who manage to come out of prison with a new lease of life and optimism for the future. What we must do is nurture that enthusiasm and do more to imbue others with it when they leave the penitentiary. We cannot subscribe to the view that the death of an addict is ‘just one of those things’. Everyone deserves a second chance and the help to be as good as they can be.