Raphael Vassallo A report prepared by the Task Force on Reparatory Justice, issued yesterday by the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry, has been cautiously welcomed by criminologists and activists involved in prisoner welfare in Malta.
The Task Force was set up to oversee a process of public consultation following the publication in February of the White Paper on Reparatory Justice.
The White Paper was intended to reform the prison system by means of a number of innovations, including the introduction of parole, a revision of the current ‘remission’ system, and improvements to existing educational and vocational programmes, among others.
Reactions to yesterday’s report have generally been positive, though guarded.
Fr Mark Montebello, founder of prisoners’ rights group Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl, praised the outcome as “sensible”.
“On the whole, without going into details, it seems that the recommendations made by the Task Force are reasonable and satisfactory,” Fr Montebello told MaltaToday. “It appears that the Task Force sought to perceive its remit in a thorough and holistic manner. While covering all significant aspects that will eventually be affected by the introduction of the parole system to Malta, the recommendations seem to be both cautious and sensible.”
One social worker, who declined to be named, likewise welcomed the fact that the Task Force took on board a number of suggestions from the general public.
These included the reversal of the original aim, expressed in the White Paper, to empower judges and magistrates to decide while sentencing whether a prisoner may benefit from parole or not.
Similarly, a proposal to limit parole to inmates from within the Schengen Zone – when the vast majority of foreign inmates at Kordin Prison come from outside the EU, still less Schengen – has been significantly scaled back.
On the downside, however, the document has been criticised because it fails to make parole – which by definition is conditional – a more attractive option than remission (i.e., the reduction of a sentence through good behaviour).
The disadvantage here is that while parole can be revoked, depending on certain circumstances, remission cannot. This, criminologists warn, might defeat the purpose of parole to begin with, as there will be little or no incentive for a prisoner to genuinely reform. Furthermore, parole entails certain educational programmes to the benefit of the prisoner, which are lacking in the case of remission.
By far the biggest criticism, however, involves the odd proviso that prisoners will only be informed of their eligibility to parole six months before they are actually eligible.
Social workers who spoke to MaltaToday said that this was grossly insufficient to adequately prepare the prisoner for his release and reintegration into society.
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