Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri acknowledged the problems within the prison system but said that the situation has improved greatly, as it is far better now than how it was during “laissez-faire times that existed until recently.”

Four days after the death of prison inmate Colin Galea, Minister Camilleri has broken his silence.

In a Facebook post published on Saturday, Camilleri said that in addition to the magisterial inquiry into the mental health procedures in prison, a board will also be set up to evaluate the internal procedures of the Correctional Services Agency, according to Inquiries Act.

The board will be scrutinizing the prison assessment on the physical and mental health of all prisoners, the rules of introduction into the facility, the prison measures to prevent suicides, procedures on the rehabilitation of prisoners from addictions, among other matters.

Camilleri’s statement comes on the same day dozens of NGOs decried the lack of transparency and action following yet another prison death. The NGOs called for a radical reform to the prison system.

In recent days many have said their part and opinion on the prison system. “Unfortunately, at times this discussion has even taken the form of a debate, which I believe is not doing any good,” Camilleri said.

He said he disagrees with those who propose a prison system which locks people up and throws away the key, or with those who ignore certain realities and propose a situation in which justice is not served for the victim.

Camilleri said that, in recent weeks he met up with many people who have strong opinions on the matter, including those who have been working for a number of years among the prisoners and the most marginalized in society.

Camilleri said that he works with professionals in the sector in order to improve things, but he is “|willing to work with others, including critics of the system and mine personally.”

“I often have to hold back from commenting, despite my access to the true facts, because I have a greater responsibility that such personal information does not become public,” Camilleri said, without referring specifically to Colin Galea.

“I believe in a discussion based on facts, of respect towards the institutions which seem to be ignored when their judgement falls out of favour,” he said.

Minister Camilleri acknowledged the problems within the system but said that many people express their view that the prison today is very different from how it was just a while ago.

Many people also claim that while there is a need for the system to improve, it is essential that CCF does not return to laissez-faire that existed until recently, Camilleri wrote.

“Now there is more order, cleanliness, no accessible drugs, a healthy medical service as well as a team of professionals in place which offer rehabilitation for those prisoners serving their sentence,” he said. 

Camilleri also argued that overcrowding at the prison, as a result of the sharp increase in prison population, has exploded in the last few years, thus giving rise to a key problem within the prison.

“There is no doubt that population growth has also posed a major challenge to the building, which houses hundreds of people and has unfortunately undergone little investment for many years,” he said.

“Perhaps the biggest shortcoming was and still is that for many years we have always put everyone in the same boat, sometimes in beds next to each other,” Camilleri wrote.

Camilleri highlighted plans to introduce electronic tagging and increased resources for prison NGO Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl as examples of what the government was doing to improve the criminal justice system.  

 

‘Byron Camilleri detached from reality’ – PN

PN Home Affairs spokesperson Beppe Fenech Adami reacted to Minister Camilleri’s defence of the prison system within CFF, saying that Camilleri was “detached from reality” as he is defending a system that is leading to “despair and suicide.”

Fenech Adami said that, after days of silence, what the Minister wrote today continues to reaffirm how cut off from reality he really is.

He added that “instead of apologising to the relatives of the prisoners, instead of taking responsibility for the deaths that took place within the prison in the past few days and instead of assuring the public that is determined to change the running of the prison system, Byron Camilleri said that in prison everything is going well and there is not much of a problem.”

By defending the director of the prison and ignoring reality, “Byron Camilleri has once again shown that he does not have the authority to change what he knows is wrong, and that is why he must take political responsibility for the deaths in prison and all the other problems,” Fenech Adami said.