The prisons have become a national scandal and the prime minister needs to take immediate action to remedy matters, the Nationalist Party said on Tuesday.
Reacting to the suicide death of a 29-year-old inmate, the shadow minister for home affairs, Beppe Fenech Adami, asked how many people have to die at Corradino before Robert Abela realises that there is total collapse at the prisons and does something about it.
Fenech Adami said the young woman had died because those responsible for the welfare of the prisoners had failed her.
Pointing out how this case was far from being the first, Fenech Adami said the prisons have become a national scandal and no one was shouldering responsibility.
He backed remarks by PN leader Bernard Grech that a new PN government will replace the management of the prisons and its director.
It would also enlarge the prisons and bring in a raft of reforms, including the introduction of half-way houses and supervised accommodation. The system of preventive arrest would be resorted to in serious cases only.
Better treatment would be provided to drug addicts while foreign prisoners would be repatriated.
The parole system would be reformed, and there would be greater contact between prisoners and their families.
Earlier on Tuesday, Moviment Graffitti accused the prison authorities of negligence leading to the young woman's suicide.
"The mess within our prison can no longer be ignored. It is clear that prison director Colonel Alexander Dalli does not care about the wellbeing of those he is in charge of keeping safe. Worse than that, he is establishing a culture of negligence, where those at risk of suicide are being ignored," it said.
It observed that Malta has the highest rate of suicide in Europe and multiple deaths within the correctional facility had gone unexplained. "This means the crisis in our prison system is not being treated with urgency by the responsible authorities."
On Monday the prison authorities said in reply to questions by Times of Malta that the young woman was never on suicide watch and had never expressed any intention to take her own life.