Almost half of all prisoners currently behind bars are still waiting for their cases to be concluded. 

A total of 221 people at Corradino Correctional Facility are there under preventive arrest, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri told parliament on Tuesday.

That compares to 339 prisoners who are there after having been sentenced to jail time by a court. 

In effect, the figures mean that four out of every 10 inmates at CCF have yet to have their day in court. 

People are held in preventive arrest when they either do not request bail, or have it denied to them by a court. Anyone accused of a crime can apply for bail, which is granted if a court believes that the accused will not abscond, tamper with evidence, speak to witnesses, or commit another crime. 

The vast majority of the 221 people in prison on preventative arrest – 65 per cent – are foreign, data provided by the minister revealed. 

That statistic is flipped when looking at the 339 prisoners serving time after being sentenced by a court: of those, 65 per cent are Maltese nationals, with the others coming from 40 different countries around the world. 

Camilleri was answering parliamentary questions asked by Opposition MP Joe Giglio.