Prisoners at Mt Carmel awarded three more months of ‘free’ telephone calls

Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici confirmed that there are no immediate plans to monitor prisoners’ calls from the Forensic Ward in Mount Carmel Hospital until the end of the year.

Effectively, this means that prisoners housed in this ward are free to make telephone calls in the absence of any form of surveillance, contrary to standard prison procedure in all developed countries.

According to Mifsud Bonnici, “the Ministry will be in a position to implement any recommendations in this regard after the Board of Review appointed on August 18 2011 presents its report to the Minister by the end of the year.”

The Justice Minister was answering questions posed by Illum editor Julia Farrugia who on Monday revealed that telephone calls made by prisoners in the Forensic Ward in Mount Carmel were not being monitored.

Telephone calls originating from Kordin Prisons are monitored, with the recordings archived for three months.

On the TV programme Inkontri, Farrugia revealed how three months ago, an inmate phoned her twice from the Forensic Ward, warning that an immediate family member of hers was in danger of being killed.

Police traced the phone calls and confirmed that they had originated from Mount Carmel Hospital. Within hours the suspected prisoner was questioned and admitted to making the phone calls.

However, when personally investigating the case, the journalist discovered that the inmates in this unit are free to make calls without any form of supervision.

During the TV discussion Julia Farrugia demanded a public explanation by the government on whether this practice is acceptable.

Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici could not answer specific questions posed by MaltaToday including whether the practice at Mount Carmel’s forensic ward is acceptable to him, or whether he would assume political responsibility for any abuse allowed by the system.

The minister confirmed that in August, government defence consultant Martin Scicluna had been appointed to chair a board of review into the operation of the forensic section at Mount Carmel Hospital.

The foremost term of reference given to the board was to examine, report and make recommendations regarding the: “functioning of the Forensic Unit at Mt Carmel Hospital, in all its various aspects, namely security, clinical care, logistics, adequacy of resources, etc.”

Minister Mifsud Bonnici stated that the Board is being given access to all the documentation that it considers relevant to enable it to undertake the above and the other terms of reference that it been tasked to perform.

Three months after the alleged phone calls, the prisoner has as yet not been arraigned in court.