A suicide attempt by a prisoner has promted the government to set up a board to evaluate prison procedures.

The Correctional Services Agency said in a statement Sunday that a prisoner, a Maltese man aged 30, was found in his cell after a suicide attempt.

After being given first assistance by the prison medical staff, the man was taken to hospital for further treatment.

The police were informed an an inquiry is being led by Magistrate Doreen Clarke.

Twelve prisoners have died at the prison in the last three years while several horror stories have emerged about prisoners not being treated well.

The government later said that a board was being set up to evaluate prison procedures.

It said that the Home Affairs Ministry had been in contact with existing boards and professionals who serve in the prison with the aim of setting up the new board.

The board will be independent of any magisterial inquiry, the government said. 

In a second statement on Monday morning, the government said that the board will be led by Anton Grech and will have Janice Formosa Pace and George Grech as members.

Formosa Pace resigned from the Board of Governance of the prison to be able to serve on this new board.

The board is entrusted with the following parameters:

a) scrutinise the procedures at the prison in their assessment of the mental and physical wellbeing of the inmates who would have just entered prison, and a study on the regulations imposed by the Correctional Services Agency.

b) scrutinise the procedures adopted by the Correctional Services Agency in their assessment of the mental and physical wellbeing of the inmates during the course of their sentence.

c) scrutinise the procedures adopted by the Correctional Services Agency on prisoners who are returning to the Kordin prison after being discharged from Mount Carmel Hospital

d) scrutinise the procedures, policies and regulations adopted by the Correctional Services Agency on the rehabilitation of inmates, including but not limited to an analysis of the support offered to inmates who have some form of addiction

e) scrutinise measures on the prevention of suicides followed by the Correctional Services Agency

The board has been given 60 days to present its report to the Home Affairs Ministry.