Prime Minister Robert Abela needs to take action on the “failing” prison system now as no more lives should be lost and more help should be given to inmates to rehabilitate themselves, the PN said in a statement.

This comes after a female prison inmate died after being found unconscious in a prison cell three weeks ago. Reports of deaths of inmates as well as the terrible conditions inside the Corradino Correctional Facility – where fostering fear is said to be the name of the game – have been pervasive in recent years.

“How many people need to die for Robert Abela to understand that in prison there is a total collapse? For another time, the Maltese population finds itself shocked with the death of another person while being in prison,” the PN’s statement read.

Once again, a woman in her prime died, because whoever is responsible for rehabilitating the lives of the people in our prison “has failed and failed miserably”, the PN said.

“Once again, we have a family suffering from the death of their daughter, because the government of Robert Abela continues to insist that everything in prison is doing well and that there are no problems. A situation where the relatives of this victim thought that she would be in a place where she would benefit but it wasn’t the case. The prison system today cannot be trusted,” the PN said.

It remarked that the prison is a “national scandal” where “people’s lives do not mean anything”. The party lamented that inmates in Corradino Correctional Facility have become just numbers and without any form of dignity directed towards them. It called on the Prime Minister to intervene.

“The Nationalist Party calls on Robert Abela to intervene immediately in order to address the situation of fear in prison. If he continues to fail, he will continue to take responsibility for everything that is happening. How many more prisoners want to die for Robert Abela to understand the gravity of the situation?” the party questioned.

The statement also said that if Opposition Bernard Grech is elected, he will see that there would be a change in leadership in prison, with the removal of the controversial director, Alex Dalli.

The statement alluded to the PN’s recently published proposals on the prison system, namely that there would be a structural extension of the facility and different treatment to those who suffer from drug abuse, amongst other things.