Malta’s prison boss does not agree with solitary confinement and would abolish it altogether if he had the power to change the law.

Christopher Siegersma, who was speaking to Times of Malta during an extensive, unprecedented filmed tour of Corradino Correctional Facility last week, said that no prisoners are serving time in solitary confinement as he does not believe it is effective.

But while Siegersma does not use solitary confinement to discipline inmates, the law permits it and judges retain the power to order it when they hand prison sentences to people who commit particularly serious crimes.

“Personally, I don’t agree with it but the law allows for it. Here we don’t send people to solitary confinement as punishment for bad behaviour and, as you’ll see in Division six [the maximum security division], even there, inmates interact with each other,” he said.

“I personally don’t agree with solitary confinement. It’s not my job to change the law but, if it were, I would abolish it.”

After several years of attempts and formal requests, Times of Malta was granted access to film at Corradino Correctional Facility (CCF) last week.

The rare opportunity documents some of the inner workings of the institution, peeking into divisions, cells and other restricted areas, providing a glimpse into the realities of incarceration – all of which will be published in this week’s episode of Times of Malta’s podcast, Times Talk.

During the tour, Siegersma also fielded the more difficult questions about the worrying state of the British-era building, prison overcrowding and disgruntlement among prison officials, among others.

The enormous prison building in the heart of Paola hosts more than 700 inmates but was built for far fewer.

‘Nobody tested positive last year’

Siegersma said drug testing has doubled during his tenure to between 6,000 and 7,000 tests annually.

Almost two-thirds of the entire prison population is tested for drugs every month, he said, and over the past 12 months all tests have been negative.

“Not one positive case. Zero. It’s the first time in prison history,” he said.

Former prison director Alex Dalli had made a similar claim while testifying in court in 2019.

Siegersma said the drug-free environment was vital to CCF’s rehabilitation focus, as it encourages inmates to enrol in education courses or work while in prison.

A psychiatric nurse by profession, 41-year-old Siegersma specialises in psychological trauma related to criminal acts.

He worked in the mental health sector for 17 years before being appointed prison welfare commissioner in 2021 and tasked with implementing recommendations made in an inquiry that looked into the way CCF was being run. In 2023, he was appointed prison director, becoming one of the youngest high-ranking prison officials in history.

The ‘bad’ cells

Times of Malta filed its most recent request to film inside the facility last month, after an ombudsman’s report found that inmates were degraded and mistreated during Dalli’s tenure as prison director between 2018 and 2021.

During that time, 14 inmates died in three years, many of them by suicide.

During its tour of prison, Times of Malta insisted on being shown cells the ombudsman’s report specifically singled out as almost inhumane. One of them was a solitary confinement cell where an inmate told the ombudsman he was kept for 33 days. It was a bare room with a foam mattress on the floor, a Turkish toilet, no sink and limited access to water, the inmate said – a description later verified by investigators.

Most inmates are aged between 31 and 40

The inmate recalled wearing just a t-shirt and shorts in December, with his underwear and socks being confiscated, leading the ombudsman to conclude that “the keeping of any person in that room for any period of time – even for just one day – was degrading treatment verging on the inhuman”.

That cell, and others like it, are no longer being used to house inmates. They have now been opened up as part of work to expand the prison kitchen.

Why is solitary confinement controversial?

Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment that involves isolating an inmate from human contact.

Inmates are typically confined to a single cell for 23 hours every day, without any human contact, and only let out for one hour.

Solitary confinement is often used as a disciplinary measure, or when it is deemed necessary for the safety of the prisoner, other prisoners or prison staff.

However, Maltese law also allows judges and magistrates to sentence inmates to periods of solitary confinement in specific cases, including murder.

They may order prison to periodically lock up the inmate in solitary confinement for not longer than 10 days in a row, as part of the punishment.

In 2021, the home affairs ministry said that four inmates out of 12 currently serving life imprisonment for murder have been ordered to serve solitary confinement.

The practice continues to ignite fierce debate globally.

Critics argue that prolonged isolation can inflict severe and lasting damage on an individual’s mental well-being. Research suggests those subjected to extended periods of solitary confinement face increased anxiety, depression, psychosis and are a heightened suicide risk.

The United Nations’ standards for the treatment of prisoners recommend that it be used only in exceptional cases and subject to independent review.

Despite those concerns, solitary confinement continues to be widely used, most notably in high-security prison settings.

Proponents of the practice often emphasise its role in maintaining prison safety. They argue that it is a necessary measure to separate violent or dangerous inmates from the general population, thereby protecting other inmates and staff.

There is a growing global movement to restrict or abolish the use of solitary confinement in prison settings, replacing it with alternative ways of handling difficult inmates. In the United States, various states have restricted the use of solitary confinement, especially for juveniles and individuals with mental illness.

In Malta, social well-being experts have longed called on the authorities to abolish solitary confinement which, they claim, increases the likelihood of a prisoner committing even more violent crimes.

In a report tabled in parliament in 2021, the then-dean of the university’s faculty of well-being, Andrew Azzopardi and other fellow researchers argued that solitary confinement could result in increased anxiety and depression, ‘sociophobia’ (when a person loses the ability to interact with other people), hallucinations, panic attacks, memory loss and paranoia.

Prison tour to be published this week

Malta’s prison has 732 inmates, 673 of whom are men and 59 women.

Of those, 408 are EU citizens, 338 of whom are Maltese nationals, and a further 282 inmates are third country nationals.

Most inmates are aged between 31 and 40. Twenty-four inmates are younger than 22 years of age and five are between 71 and 80.

Times of Malta spent four-and-a-half hours touring the Corradino prison.

The full Times Talk podcast detailing that tour will be released on Times of Malta, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and on social media this week.