Malta’s prisoners can soon start having sexual activity with their loved one once again after the prison’s director revealed he would lift the ban on conjugal visits.

Speaking on One’s Stat ta’ Fatt, Colonel Alex Dalli, revealed that visitation rights, whether intimate or otherwise, will also soon be re-introduced.

“I don’t want to get into details, but abuses were happening in these visits, but we have plans to re-introduce conjugal and other visits, through the introduction of better checks like electronic tagging systems,” Dalli said.

He stressed that humanity is always at the core of the Corradino Correctional Facility. Holding back tears, Dalli relayed a recent case where he took an inmate to see a dying relative.

After taking over the prison a year and a half ago, Dalli pledged to clamp down on issues inside the prison, namely the facility’s massive drug problem, by cutting out certain privileges.

The introduction of body scanners has yielded some result, with officers at Corradino making several discoveries over the last few weeks, including a €15,000 ring hidden in an inmate’s bowels.

Prisoners speaking on the programme said that the situation had improved drastically under Dalli’s tenure. However, the problem is yet to be eradicated, with figures showing that there have been at least 14 drug finds in Malta’s prison so far this year.

Meanwhile, five prisoners have died in prison since the start of 2018.

Host Paula Cauchi took Dalli to task over his role, namely his hard reputation amongst prisoners, who she said often referred to him as a “showoff”.

Dalli defended his methods, insisting that once he applied for such a tough position, he had to ensure that he was not going to accept any bad behaviour from inmates. However, he failed to divulge his techniques.

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