Strip searches of prisoners and visitors to the Corradino prison will soon become a thing of the past as body scanners are introduced, Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference, Dr Farrugia deplored the “inhumane system” of having people strip searched.

He said the introduction of advanced technology would do away with the need for cavity searches.

New food menu to cater for different religious denominations

The Home Affairs minister also announced plans to introduce a new food menu at the prison.

He said the menu would be tailored to the various religious denominations at Corradino, giving inmates a choice of food.

The menu would rotate daily and change every two weeks.

He said studies wereunderwayy to better understand the categories of inmates at the prison and how to better house them in the appropriate division.

Dr Farrugia also spoke of the need to cut down recidivism levels, noting that practically whole families were known to be imprisoned.

He said the government was looking at introducing the necessary social structures to cut down on repeat offenders.

The minister lauded community-based care initiatives such as those carried out by the RISE Foundation.

He said the foundation had registered a 95 per cent success rate in rehabilitating inmates.

Dr Farrugia spoke of the “paradox” of placing inmates in drug rehabilitation programmes towards the end of their prison sentences.

The need for such programmes at the end of an inmate’s sentence indicated that they were using drugs in prison, the minister said.

He said the challenge was to drastically reduce the availability of drugs in prison.