An analysis of Malta’s correctional services agency : a public policy approach

Abstract

This dissertation explores and analyzes Malta’s Correctional Services Agency, which is the only prison in Malta and aspires to understand the prison management and the objectives, adopted to reach the goals as a correctional facility. A research that investigates the realities that Malta’s prison is currently going through from a managerial position and through the eyes of being an inmate living to the standard within the same prison. The researcher adopted a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews with eight professionals, and conducted a focus group with ex-inmates that embarked and completed a rehabilitation program with Rise Foundation. The use of triangulation and theme selection were used to analyse the data collected. The researcher used Norway’s Halden Prison as a model on which the prison management can aspire to reach. A prison that it is considered the most humane in the world, and after five years of opening saw a decrease in recidivism from approximately 70% to 20%. The key findings of this research dealt with rehabilitation, after-care, architecture, employment and education. The main recommendations illustrated in the last chapter focuses on measures, incentives, services and policies that can be adopted to further empower the value of rehabilitation while ensuring that the time incarcerated will be used effectively for a more facilitated reintegration as law-abiding citizens.