Overcrowding and a lack of effort to rehabilitate prisoners have been singled out as pressing issues at the prisons by the National Audit Office (NAO).
A performance audit, published on Wednesday, found that while efforts were being made by the prison authorities to design care plans for prisoners, these were not reaching the entire prison population.
While several factors contributed to overcrowding in the prison, the NAO said that housing more than one prisoner per cell was not ideal and had obvious negative implications.
The report came after last-month under-fire prison director Alexander Dalli suspended himself from his position after the 14th person died in the prison under his watch. However the audit had started earlier.
Prison capacity cannot keep up - 140 inmates crammed in dorm
The prison, the NAO found, has 474 cells which would ideally house one person each. However the prison population went up from 550 in 2016 to around 800 at the time of writing, and there were 900 inmates at one point in 2020.
The situation was further compounded by the prison management attempting to adhere to segregation rules set out by laws and court orders.
“Such segregations complicate the allocation of prisoners throughout the facility, possibly resulting in inmates having to be placed in a division which is already well-populated rather than in another with more available space,” the NAO said.
It was in this climate that the sharing of cells among inmates had become common practice, it added.
Some 140 inmates were being housed in a dormitory, which included bunk beds stacked in three tiers, with the NAO describing the indoor area of the dormitory as “very restrictive” and with virtually “no personal space”. Auditors detecting a noticeable body odour while there.
Furthermore, the division only had one shower cubicle and one toilet, which did not afford inmates an adequate level of personal hygiene.
Prison expansion plans 'not enough'
Auditors were told by prison authorities that there are plans to increase prison capacity by an additional 100 cells, through a €1.5million investment, with a substantial amount of work being done by the prisoners themselves. While positive, the NAO noted that this would be insufficient to reach ideal standards for all prisoners.
“While commendable, an extension of an additional 100 cells would still not be sufficient to achieve an ideal situation of one prisoner per cell with the current inmate population, let alone if this population increases in the future,” they said.
Law is vague on prisoner rehabilitation
While reviewing prisoner rehabilitation efforts, the NAO found that part of the issue is that the law is somewhat vague on what rehabilitation efforts should be undertaken while inmates are serving their prison sentences.
While the law does specify that a care plan must be drawn up for every sentenced inmate, the legal requirement stops there, while the implementation of care plans is not enforceable through any particular means.
“This Office is concerned about the fact that local legislation does not specifically impose sufficient obligations,” the audit office said.
“This consideration may lead to the prison agency being fully compliant with local law even in the event that insufficient effort is actually invested in the rehabilitation of prisoners.”
Notwithstanding, the NAO found that the care plans under review were well documented and preserved an audit trail of interventions with each inmate.
The process of instituting care plans for inmates began in February 2020 but 114 of 716 sentenced inmates (16%) remain without a care plan the NAO found.
“This means that a significant portion of the prisoner population is not even being provided with what is a legal requirement in this respect and what is considered as a basic foundation to a systematic care and reintegration programme.”
Looking at educational opportunities, the NAO found that while the pandemic had limited the number of opportunities afforded to inmates, there was also a lack of interest on the latter’s part.
When it came to work placements, only 355 inmates were given jobs within the prison, which the auditor found limited given the size of the prison population.
“The NAO attributes these issues to a long-standing lack of commitment towards rehabilitation by successive administrations, which manifests itself in the malleable requirements on rehabilitative efforts cited in local law.”
“This essentially leaves care and reintegration initiatives in a situation in which they have to compete with, rather than complement, stronger legal obligations such as those relating to discipline and good order. In view of these considerations, NAO urges CSA to give due attention, at the very earliest, to the recommendations presented in this report so that a better overall service could be provided to the prisoner population.”
Successful clampdown on drug abuse
The audit office said that it had sought to verify claims that drug abuse at the prisons had been reduced significantly in the past few years.
It said that tests taken four weeks after inmates were admitted showed that drug abuses had declined from 47 in 2019 to 14 in 2020 and just 3 in 2021.
The authorities also kept rigorous records on drugs used to treat withdrawal symptoms, with the NAO noting that there was a general decrease in the dispensation of the medications.
“Presented figures show a pronounced downward trend in this respect and depict what can be considered as a controlled situation within an environment which is conventionally prone to challenges in this area,” the audit office said.
Prison kept clean and orderly
The office added that while some inmates were kept segregated according to the terms imposed by courts, others were allowed to move freely within common areas, with activities being carried out in a normal and organised manner.
Noise levels were found to be acceptable and all areas of the facility were kept tidy and ordered.
While the building was not modern, facilities did not present any “immediate” concerns and walls, floors and ceilings of most divisions were in “unobjectionable conditions”. Most divisions, the NAO said, would benefit from varying maintenance such as repainting walls, repairing floors, refurbishing showers and overall upkeep of fittings.
But all divisions were clean. The cleanliness of individual cells was generally clean overall.
Overtime filling gaps in staffing
The NAO found that despite prison management having a target of employing one correctional officer for every three inmates, there were only 333 correctional officers at the facility and there was a substantial level of overtime to make up for a lack of staff.
Minister welcomes findings
Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri welcome the report and said it was a testament to the hard work that had been carried out.
“Our job now is to continue building on the good things we’ve achieved and continue instituting reform that will be recommended at the conclusion of the magisterial inquiry that I ordered a few weeks ago so that in areas where more attention is needed, action can be taken,” he said.