The prison is a failed system

GEORGE BUSUTTIL from the organisation Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl speaks to Rebekah Cilia about the difficulties prisoners face when they leave prison. MID-DLAM GHAD-DAWL

The organisation helps prisoners and their families with whatever they may need during their time in prison as well as after they leave.

Busuttil believes it is useless talking about the problems prisoners face when they leave prison because the problems do not start when they go into prison; perhaps they increase then, but the problems start way before.

One cannot solve the problems prisoners face when they spend time in prison if you do not know what got them to prison in the first place, what their background is, what difficulties they faced during their life, Busuttil explains.

“This is important because we hear a lot of comments about prisoners leaving prison and not finding work, not having where to live but the prob-lems would have been there before. Most of the time they find work and a place to live but they are not capable of living independently or holding down a job.”

However, Busuttil believes that, “If you do not work on the prisoner from the first day that he enters prison he will not cope. This is why the prison does not work as an institute. It is a failed system, in not only Malta but also all around the world. The prison system does not work because if it did the number of prisoners would fall not increase.”

Until now, the process has been to put people in a warehouse for a certain period and expect that the prisoner will change. In prison, those who want to work can work, those who want to study can do so, but it is up to the in-dividual.

One of the principles of Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl is that change has to come from the individual but he needs help from the institutions. If an individual has been raised in a troubled environment, in a dysfunctional family, how can you expect that prison will resolve his or her issues?

Magistrates, who often have to pass judgement on people who are repeat of-fenders, comment that they had not learnt from their time in prison, but who has ever said that going to prison teaches you anything? We hear this very often in our courts, unfortunately, Busuttil says.

One has to see the problem comprehensively and not when the prisoner leaves.

“The biggest need the prisoners have is to be heard. As they cannot tell their fellow inmates or the guards most things, they cannot tell anyone. After many years they learn to trust us.”

Busuttil explains that people from the organisation go to the prison and start speaking to the prisoners. Some approach them while some keep their distance so they go to speak to them. It is the less vociferous who need their help most of the time.

“I know it is hard to believe but most prisoners have low self-esteem and are very shy. In fact, most end up taking drugs and alcohol to compensate for these problems.”

Busuttil says that in prison there is a cross-section of the population with some coming from dysfunctional families with a predisposition for them to end up in jail while others come from a different background, but he insists “there are no monsters in prison”.

He gives an example of a girl he knows personally whose family brought her up in the right way but somehow she ended up in the world of drugs, prostitution and crime. There are all sorts in prison but most come from dysfunctional families.

“Life skills are learnt at home so if for example no one in the family has held a steady job, how are these people expected to know better? To break that cycle is difficult.

“Let us take an example of a girl we met in prison who was a prostitute. We go to speak to her and encourage her to find a job but she calls us crazy for telling her that. You want me to work in a factory for long hours, earning a minimum wage when I could earn that amount of money in a night she tells me... You tend to want to agree with her apart from the degradation but since her family was probably in the same line of work this does not matter to her.”

These are all issues that need to be worked on while the prisoner is incar-cerated. Busuttil explains that this is no easy task as first and foremost there needs to be a system of classifying prisoners. He says that this system should be introduced in Malta as soon as possible.

At the moment, both those under arrest and those serving a prison sentence are placed together. Abroad there are two distinct sections: prison and jail; the latter is where those under arrest are placed while the former is where they are imprisoned once sentenced.

Busuttil said that when a prisoner enters there should be what is known as sentence planning. There should be an induction section where the prisoner can spend the first few weeks and speak to the prisoner to see what he or she may need and analyse what the problems are.

At this point, there should also be constant liaising with the family, which is very important. At the moment, the family does not feature at all in the life of the prisoner. The prison plan should also be coordinated with the family.

The plan should have certain targets so if, for example, the prisoner does not know how to read and write he or she should be encouraged to learn. The term school should not be used but instead, privileges should be given when the targets are reached to encourage the prisoners.

There are several sections in prison where different work is carried out so the prisoner can learn while working.

Once the plan is made, it is important that the prisoner has someone to fol-low him or her throughout the plan. While this does not happen at the moment, Busuttil notes that from the Ministry’s end there is a plan to put in place such classifications and sentence planning.

“I am not a doctor but I believe there are a lot of prisoners who have mental health issues.” Although there is a psychiatrist, it is up to the individual to come forward unless diagnosed. There is also the Forensic Unit in Mount Carmel Hospital if the case so requires.

The ones who have a better chance of doing well outside prison are those who have a family to help them, who have a job and those who prior to their prison sen-

tence already worked. Unfortunately, there are a group of prisoners who are in and out of prison.

“Mid Dlam Ghad-Dlam also offers help when they leave prison but once they leave, they generally disappear from our radar. Then one day they turn up at our door, skeletal looking after s/he would have hit rock bottom. This is especially the case of drug users. However, our general policy is that they come live with us straight after they leave prison.”

There are many conditions set down for prisoners living in the organisa-tion’s apartments. Some include that they do not bring anyone else in, no drugs, no alcohol, keeping clean, following programmes that the organisa-tion plans for them. They also test them for drugs. Other than that, they are free to come and go as they please.

“We start off with three months and then we take it from there. There were people that we had to kick out from the apartments because the conditions were not followed. Some behaviour is not tolerated.”

Busuttil narrates several stories some of success whereby the person goes on to live a settled life, with a job and having a place to live, and others which unfortunately return to prison despite the organisation’s to find them jobs.

One story in particular deals with an 18year-old who was released from prison and was found a job by the organisation. After just three weeks he would only sporadically turn up for work and in the end, went back to prison. He came from a dysfunctional family and had immense hatred for his mother. “It makes you wonder what this relatively young man must have seen growing up. You start asking yourself that perhaps he is not to blame for becoming a drug addict.”

Many criminals in prison are there because of drugs or drug-related crimes like stealing. Unlike what most people think, these crimes are not premedi-tated but done impulsively, caused by their drug habit.

Busuttil says that we should take note of Holland’s system as they are clos-ing down prisons because they no longer need them. They put in place a rehabilitation system in their prisons that actually works and so the number of prisoners has reduced dramatically.

Mid-Dlam Ghad-Dawl does try to find the prisoners jobs when they leave prison and there is also Jobsplus, which is very present in prison and helps the prisoners a lot. Busuttil explains that some employers take a chance on the prisoners but not everyone.

The organisation has also given a lot of importance to the prisoners’ fami-lies and two years ago it carried out a yearlong research, with funds from the Community Chest Fund, and accessed the problems prisoner’s families face. A publication entitled “Locked Out” was issued as well as a confer-ence on the subject.

What is ‘Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl’ and what does it do?

Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl is an organisation that was actually founded by a group of prisoners in 1995. The name which in English translates to “From Darkness to Light” was chosen by the founders of the organisation to ex-press their hope for the future.

They asked for permission to start meeting in prison to see how they could help themselves and their families face the prison experience with more dignity and self-esteem.

Following their release from prison, two of the leading founders continued the group on the outside, working closely with the nongovernment or-ganisation Daritama, which forms part of a larger organisation under the leadership of Rev. Dr Mark F. Montebello.

The group started by visiting prisoners and seeing what could be done to help them and their families. Eventually, Daritama was dissolved and Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl became the sole organisation and is now in its 23rd year.

“Our main scope is to visit prisoners. We have friends there we visit who perhaps other people do not want to be friends with. So what we do is have a chat with our friends, which as friends we speak about the good and the bad days – my shoes tore and I cannot buy a new pair, problems at home...”

The organisation also has a shelter with three apartments where prisoners can live when they leave the prison.

Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl also has a scheme whereby they encourage families to ‘adopt’ a prisoner to see him or her regularly. This is especially encour-aging for those prisoners who are serving longer sentences to have someone to visit them.