An inquiry has been launched after cocaine was discovered in the toilet of an inmate’s cell at the Corradino Correctional Facility, Times of Malta has confirmed.
An undisclosed amount of white substance, believed to be cocaine, was found during random checks inside the prison cells earlier this week.
A spokesperson for the Correctional Services Agency said the drug was discovered during routine inspections in Division 3.
Immediate action was taken with a police report being filed at the Paola Police Station as well as internal action in line with the agency’s standard operating procedures.
The inmate in question was transferred to another division until investigations are concluded. His transfer to solitary confinement could not be immediately confirmed although this is usually the standard practice.
“The Correctional Services Agency practices a zero tolerance to drugs inside prison and works hard, together with other entities, to provide drug rehabilitation to inmates. Illicit substances hinder the rehabilitative process and CSA cannot condone that,” the spokesperson told Times of Malta when asked.
She explained how routine testing is used to establish whether inmates made use of any illicit substance.
The discovery showed how “the systems in place to detect illicit drugs had worked again,” the spokesperson said.
“The Correctional Services Agency will continue its fight against the presence of drugs in prison not only to preserve the optimum results achieved but above all to safeguard all inmates,” she added.
Last year, a prison warden resigned from his job after testing positive for cocaine during a routine urine test among prison officials.
According to information tabled in parliament last year, a total of 15 prison inmates tested positive for drugs in 2021. Answering a parliamentary question by PN MP Beppe Fenech Adami, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said 3,347 drug tests were carried out in 2021, resulting in 15 positive cases.
The drug positivity rate when compared to the amounts of tests carried out stood at 0.45%, Camilleri said.
Drugs were rampant in prison prior to the appointment of controversial CCF director Alex Dalli, who was praised for weeding out drugs from Corradino although he had come under fire for his unorthodox methods of discipline, which reportedly included a poster that told officials to “teach fear” and a restraining chair to which unruly inmates were strapped.
Suicides in prison quadrupled under Dalli’s tenure. A former army colonel, Dalli had run the prison since 2018 until he was forced to resign at the end of 2021 following a spate of prison deaths.
Dalli had told a court in July 2019 that there were no drugs in prison.
Dalli had been replaced by Robert Brincau but his appointment was short-lived, having to resign shortly after a court found him guilty of holding a gun to a man’s head at Għadira Bay last summer. Christopher Siegersma, a psychiatric nurse, was appointed in his stead.