Prison chief accused of trying to curry favour with warders, inmates as police probe gun claims

Prison chief Alex Dalli faces fresh claims of trying to curry favour with warders and prisoners while police investigate allegations that he threatened an inmate with a gun.

The claims were reported in sister newspaper Illum after it was approached by more warders willing to spill the beans on Dalli’s running of the Corradino Correctional Facility.

The warders, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, claimed the prison authorities over the past weeks have dished out a number of promotions to warders and awarded privileges to certain inmates.

The manoeuvres have intensified in the wake of a defamation suit Dalli filed against Illum over an interview with former prison warder, Emmanuel Cassar, who gave an eyewitness account of the alleged incident in which the prison chief used a hand gun to threaten a prisoner.

The police are investigating the gun allegation and Illum reports that a number of warders have already been spoken to by the police.

Dalli has been under fire for his draconian disciplinary methods, which prisoner welfare activists blame for a number of suicide attempts in the facility.

Two prisoners who attempted suicide at the start of summer, eventually succumbed to their injuries and died. A magisterial inquiry into one of the deaths has recommended criminal action against two prison officials for negligence.

However, the prison is also under the spotlight of an independent inquiry set up by Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri in the wake of the second suicide attempt. This inquiry is tasked with assessing, among others, the prison’s procedures in dealing with people at risk of suicide.

Attempts by Illum to get a reply from Camilleri and Dalli have so far proved futile.

Camilleri has so far refused to remove Dalli and in recent comments said that he will only take decisions when the independent inquiry ends.