Prisoner requests heater, told to transfer to paedophile section
Raphael Vassallo An inmate of Corradino prison has been advised by the prison administration to apply for a transfer to Division 8 – the section usually reserved for paedophiles and other vulnerable persons – after requesting permission to have a heater installed in his cell.
However, it transpires that there is no heating system at Division 8, either. Nor is any other section of the Corradino prison furnished with any form of heating appliance, except for two: the medical ward, and the guardroom.
Godfrey Ellul, 52, is currently serving a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking at Corradino’s Division One. Owing to a range of medical conditions, including anaemia, Ellul argues that a heater is indispensable for health reasons.
“When I asked for permission to have a heater installed in my cell, I was told to apply for a transfer to the paedophile section, because it is air-conditioned,” he said. “Why should I have to transfer to that division just to have access to a medical need?”
Nor is it clear why the recommendation was made in the first place, considering that Division 8 is no different from the other divisions when it comes to heating and cooling facilities.
Ironically it was the prison’s acting director Abraham Zammit – who also made the original recommendation – who confirmed as much with MaltaToday, after double-checking at the newspaper’s request.
Zammit explained that heaters in prison cells went against health and safety procedural regulation. “Inmates are not allowed to have heaters in their cells, for safety and security reasons,” he said. “You will find that this the accepted system in prisons all over the world.”
However, a simple search on the Internet revealed otherwise. In fact, prisons all over Europe and the United States are endowed with heating facilities, and in many cases their technical specifications are described at some length on the facitlities’ own websites, together with certifications by companies responsible for maintenance, among other details.
Zammit – a former Special Mobile Unit (SMU) officer, who was appointed to the post after his predecessor Sandro Gatt resigned abruptly last year – claimed that he had recommended a transfer to Division 8 because it was “smaller that Division 1”, and therefore easier to keep warm.
When it was pointed out that Division 1 is divided into individuals cells, whereas Division 8 consists in a single dormitory, Zammit insisted that “the alcove (Ellul) would have had in Division 8 would have been smaller than his cell in Division 1.”
Asked whether he would accept responsibility for fatalities among inmates arising from prolonged exposure to cold and humid conditions – for instance, as a result of broncho-pneumonia – Zammit said that in such cases, inmates always have access to the medical ward (which is heated).
At a glance, this set-up appears to fly in the face of the present health authorities’ insistence on ‘precaution’ as opposed to ‘cure’ – a commitment undertaken by outgoing social policy minister John Dalli, and which will be also a major plank of Dalli’s policy repertoire when he assumes the role of European Commissioner for Health today.
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