For a nation so easily offended by singers’ stage costumes and small placards in planters, you would think we’d have a stellar reputation for being sensitive to mental health issues and having an envy-inducing prison system. Yet, the stories that sometimes surface are bone-chillingly awful, to say the least. Yesterday, I came across such a tale that I have been turning over in my mind since I read it.
For such a traditionally Catholic country, we aren’t very good at concepts like mercy and kindness. It would seem that many stopped reading the Bible after the Old Testament and just assimilated the part where God was full of wrath and fury. To be honest, I often wonder if the first person who came up with the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth maxim had some Maltese blood in him.
Justice is a slippery eel and can take years to be meted out; we also seem to think it is subjective and optional, depending on whether we like the person or if he is related to us. I am surprised that we did not add a ‘terms and conditions apply’ disclaimer to our laws years ago. People are scared to report things for fear of scratched cars, retribution, and the widespread belief that the law will not do much to protect them.
In reality, it’s probably our small size and the fact that we know that there is always someone at the window or behind the reed curtain watching us that deters a great number of the population not to commit more heinous acts. Many still do not understand the concept of rehabilitation or can empathise in any real way with the suffering of others, and this always comes out clearly whenever I read the comments under articles related to prison and prisoners. Yesterday, was one such occasion.
For such a traditionally Catholic country, we aren’t very good at concepts like mercy and kindness- Anna Marie Galea
On the same day that it was reported that a woman attempted suicide and was found unconscious in her cell, a shocking article was published alleging that a group of academics who were visiting Corradino Correctional Facility were asked to listen to an inmate who was put in solitary confinement crying out for his mother by the prison director. Even having to write this now and having to imagine the anguish of both the people who had to hear it and the prisoner himself has my stomach in knots. How can anyone think that this is okay?
Of course, I believe in justice and punishment, but isn’t the deprivation of one’s liberty more than enough of a punishment? And even more importantly, when things that are clearly so psychologically damaging to prisoners are allowed to happen, how can we then hope to rehabilitate them in society once their time comes to leave the prison gates?
As the country that reportedly has the highest suicide rates among prisoners in Europe, shouldn’t we be sitting around a table and discussing the best ways to move out of this archaic mindset?
To truly be the best in the world as the Prime Minister said last week to many a raised eyebrow, it is not only important that every single road in Malta is destroyed and rebuilt; and that every household has a packet of seeds at its disposal.
True progress comes from societies that are built with the person and human dignity at their centre. Prisons should not just be places of punishment, but they need to be spaces that rehabilitate and provide the possibility of a better future. It’s only by breaking the cycle that we can break chains.
