Reading through your criminal columns I realise that like every other country, Malta has an increasing problem with its prisoner population, while the animal rescue scene has recently gone through a crisis. I began to wonder how other countries deal with situations like this because it certainly isn’t a Malta specific dilemma.
When researching this problem I came across the story of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona. For those of you who have never heard of this wonderful person he is the Maricopa Arizona County Sheriff and he keeps getting elected every year for saving the county thousands of dollars through innovative projects which include putting jail inmates to work on county and city projects.
I can tell you are warming to this guy already! He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.
Now Maricopa County was spending approximately $18 million a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County supervisors said okay. The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behaviour. They give classes for anyone who’d like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows. The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million.
These are just two examples but I’m sure that Malta could come up with plenty more ideas of what the prison population could work on, like public cleansing. The system need not be limited to prisoners as offering work to immigrants while they’re being processed could avoid a lot of the aggro and violence you are seeing at the closed centres. I know that some of them are experts at building dry stone walls, which is a talent that Malta could put to good use.
With a deficit running high and a need to spruce up the islands in order to attract more tourists, offering prisoners and immigrants work at low wages could well solve many of Malta’s problems.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Search:
MALTATODAY
BUSINESSTODAY
Download MaltaToday Sunday issue front page in pdf file format
All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.
