One hundred recommendations for reforming Malta’s prison system were published this afternoon by University dean Andrew Azzopardi in collaboration with TV presenter Peppi Azzopardi.

Both men have been campaigning for a long-overdue reform of Malta’s prison for some time, having now upped in the ante in light of the repeated stories of inhumane treatment emerging from within prison’s walls.

Azzopardi has taken it upon himself to be the voice of inmates experiencing daily dehumanisation in prison.

Among the many proposals is one for the “demilitarisation” of the Corradino Correctional Facility, as well as for drug-related cases not to be sent to prison and to be enrolled in a rehabilitation program instead. 

For parents who are in prison, they called for a designated place from them to meet their children outside the prison’s walls. Taking a child into prison to visit their parent can be extremely traumatising for them especially at a young age, the document argues.

The proposals also call for rooms instead of cells, a job for all prisoners within the facility, the immediate removal of uniforms, and an eligibility to vote in elections.

Azzopardi has also strongly called for the complete elimination of solitary confinement, saying that this should be made illegal.

It was also suggested that a new Ministry for Social Politics should be created, and the prison would be fall under this ministry, instead of Home Affairs.

Lastly, they proposed immediate access for media, so that journalists could be well informed about what actually happens within Malta’s prison.

Last Tuesday, the 13th death in the last three years was confirmed inside the Corradino Correctional Facility after 30-year-old inmate Colin Galea died following injuries from his suicide attempt. This came not even two months after the last suicide that happened within the prison.

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