Editorial: Bridging the gap for inmates

The chief operations officer of Malta’s prisons, Etienne Scicluna, recently reflected on the challenges of rehabilitation. Over the past two years, he said, he had seen inmates make significant progress while at the Corradino Correctional Facility, only to return to prison after struggling once back in the community.

His comments came during the launch of the Offender Aftercare and Reintegration Support (OARS) programme, a €1.2 million initiative that will provide six months of tailored, multidisciplinary support before, during and after an inmate’s release. The programme is funded for three years through a collaboration between the Correctional Services Agency, the Ministry for Home Affairs, the Ministry for Social Policy and NGOs Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl Foundation and SOS Malta.

The initiative builds on research that consistently shows that many offenders have experienced trauma before entering prison. Existing literature also suggests that imprisonment on its own does little to reduce reoffending.

Instead, it often creates additional psychological, social and economic challenges that make reintegration even harder.

OARS seeks to bridge that gap by providing professional support during the critical transition back into society. Participants are referred through the Care, Reintegration and Education Unit (CREU), and enrol on a voluntary basis.

The launch, however, also risks giving the impression that structured aftercare is something entirely new. It is not.

OARS has been operating inside prison for a few months. More importantly, NGOs have been working in this field for years. Mid-Dlam Għad-Dawl and the Rise Foundation have long offered voluntary reintegration programmes that continue after release, including residential schemes where former inmates move into structured environments designed to support their transition back into society.

These organisations have built valuable experience, often with limited resources.

The available evidence is encouraging. Research presented recently by the Rise Foundation followed 40 inmates who completed its rehabilitation programme between 2016 and 2021.

Results showed that around 86 per cent of Malta’s prison population consists of repeat offenders. Yet, among those who successfully completed the Rise programme, the reoffending rate fell to about 40 per cent. That is still far from ideal, but it represents a substantial improvement.

The obvious question is whether OARS will achieve similar success.

Because participation is voluntary and lasts six months, the challenge will not simply be enrolling inmates, but keeping them engaged once they leave prison and face the pressures, temptations and instability of everyday life. Some may thrive, others may lose contact or abandon the programme altogether.

That is why the real measure of success will not be the launch itself but the follow-up. Authorities should publish clear outcomes: how many participants complete the programme, how many disengage, and whether reoffending rates decline.

If the data shows that something is not working, the programme should be adapted. If NGOs have developed approaches that prove particularly effective, those lessons should be shared and incorporated. Rehabilitation should never

become a competition between government agencies or voluntary organisations.

With the prison population now exceeding 500 inmates and the estimated daily cost per prisoner standing at around €128, the question is not simply how much is being spent, but whether that investment is producing lasting change for offenders and greater safety for society.

In the words of Home Affairs Minister Glenn Bedingfield: “Safety does not end with a jail term, but when the conditions that lead someone to commit a crime are reduced.”

Successful rehabilitation depends on cooperation, evidence and a willingness to learn from everyone working in the field. In the end, the priority must be reducing reoffending – not protecting institutional turf.