Three days have now passed since Colin Galea died in hospital, some days after he attempted suicide while he was in prison.
Three days where calls for the resignation of prison head Alexander Dalli have come from all quarters. Three days where people have wondered what truly is going on in our prison. Three days where a family has mourned the loss of their loved one.
Three days where the minister responsible for our prisons has been silent.
Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri has not uttered a single word about Galea’s passing. He has not uttered a single word about who should take responsibility.
Galea’s death is the 13th in the Corradino Correctional Facility in the past three years. Something is very clearly wrong – although because the conclusions of inquiries into each of these deaths remain shrouded in mystery, we can’t say exactly what.
We have heard the prisoner who discovered Galea hanging after his suicide attempt detail in an interview with the Times of Malta the situation inside what he called the Corradino ‘vindictive’ facility.
And we then saw the General Workers’ Union newspaper and Labour Party media fish out an audio clip of the same prisoner shouting at guards some years prior – as if to try and discredit what he said in the interview.
How good would it be if the government actually acts in the face of such statements and stories emerging from prison, rather than employing its favoured media houses to try and discredit them.
Given how the state orchestrated a campaign to discredit Daphne Caruana Galizia, as per the public inquiry into her death, maybe old habits do die hard.
To its credit – the government has appointed an inquiry into certain facets of the prison: one which has been instructed to provide its conclusions within two months.
But as things stand, this is not enough.
It is clear that we have a prison director with a tyrannical streak. Alexander Dalli prides himself on being a harsh disciplinarian, a military man through and through: but it’s clear that his methods – on which several horror stories have emerged – have no place in a facility which is meant to reform people so that they can safely re-join society.
It’s quite simple: Dalli has to go.
But now after so much inaction – we have to go further.
Why has Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri been so silent on this issue? Why has he failed to act against Dalli after all of these stories have come out? After all of these people have died?
His failure to take action – his failure to even utter a single word – not even a word of condolence for the family of the latest victim to have died in Corradino – means that he must shoulder responsibility as well.