The amount of methadone given to drug-addicted prison inmates has decreased by two thirds in recent months, in an attempt to weed out drug dependency behind bars.

Chris Cremona, the surgeon who heads a newly inaugurated medical centre at Corradino Correctional Facility, on Wednesday told Times of Malta that while up until last year inmates used up around three litres of methadone every single day, today the prison was using less than a litre of the substance on prisoners.  

“There has been an overall effort to reduce drug dependency in the facility and it is now bearing fruit. This doesn’t happen by accident but is part of a coordinated strategy,” Cremona said. 

Methadone is a prescription drug used for pain relief and treatment of opioid addiction. It is usually administered to heroin addicts to help wean them off illegal drugs. 

Director stands by 'no drugs' claim

Back in 2019, prison director Alex Dalli had raised eyebrows when he announced that drugs had been eradicated from prison. 

Speaking during a press walk-around of CCF’s new €600,000 medical centre, Dalli stood by the statement, saying routine tests and inspections consistently showed no presence of narcotics in the prison.  

The same was true of synthetic copycat drugs. CCF’s new medical centre comes kitted out with equipment used to test urine for legal highs that are often smuggled into prison across Europe as a safer substance for inmates to get caught with. 

The operator of the testing equipment told Times of Malta that no recent tests had shown positive for synthetic cannabinoids or other legal thrills.  

The prison had hit the headlines last month when Times of Malta reported how the government had requested the removal of a controversial prison notice that declared the role of prison is "to teach fear".

€600,000 new prison medical centre inaugurated 

A treatment room in the prison's new medical centre.

The new state-of-the-art medical facility is equipped with a new dental clinic, a psychiatric unit, triage bay, and a number of medical cells for overnight treatment. 

Cremona said it would allow healthcare professionals to offer in-house treatment for most of the roughly 850 prison inmates serving time at CCF.

This means outpatient trips to Mater Dei Hospital will be cut down drastically.  

Last year prison officials oversaw some 1,100 escorts to outside medical facilities.

This was down by 200 visits over the previous year and the hope is that with the new medical centre, there will be close to no need for such trips.  

Meanwhile, Cremona said that the drop in drug use in prison had brought with it a decline in violence.  

Asked how often prison inmates required treatment for injuries inflicted by other prisoners, he said that in the last 15 months he could only recall one such incident.

Self-harm, he said, had also dropped significantly, though he could not produce numbers off-hand.

Cremona said psychiatric services, together with other support, and the overall rapport medical staff built with patients was improving their lives in the facility.  

He said the medical facility has direct access to the national health record database, and is in effect an extension of the state hospital. 

This was important because around 400 inmates, roughly half the prison population, are on some form of daily medical treatment. 

“Many inmates will have led the type of lives that result in irregular health treatment. We hope that with these new in-house services we can offer them the type of care they may have never received. Ultimately this will help with their rehabilitation too,” Cremona said.  

In a brief address during Wednesday’s inauguration, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said the population at CCF had increased considerably in recent years. This meant the need for medical services had increased too.

The new facility, he said, would offer inmates the same level of care enjoyed by the public.