Speculation over the quality and quantity of rehabilitation programmes available for prisoners in Malta has been the at the centre of many debates. The Malta Independent on Sunday contacted the Ministry for Home Affairs to get to the bottom of things.
According to the Correctional Services Agency (CSA), since February 2020, “every new admission is assessed by Care, Reintegration and Education Unit (CRU) personnel […] who create a tailored plan according to the person’s individual needs.”
The CSA consists of medical officers, social workers, psychologists and care plan coordinators who assess the individual and encourage the prisoner to complete a set of rehabilitation programmes which are selected after the analysis has been done on the person.
These programmes and courses are all aimed at removing criminogenic needs and inmates are required to complete various psychology informed programmes which tackle anger management, sex offender treatment and cognitive skills programmes, the CSA said.
“These programmes are delivered in house and on a one to one or group basis […] motivational sessions are also delivered to help increase the sense of commitment and change.”
…
CSA also remarked that it has been working on a reintegration programme which imparts life skills, cognitive thinking, occupational health and safety as well as added daily physical activities.
Prisoners are also allowed to finish off their sentence in a form of community-based approach to aid in their reintegration.
What an enlightened society Malta is! Sex offense therapy in the prison! With the goal of changing! And a reintegration program! We need to send some California politicians to Malta to take a look.
Compare that to this random United Way “Programs that seek to prevent released sex offenders from committing new crimes” that depends on hardcore registry and notification but nothing that Malta provides: https://211lakecounty.org/index.php?option=com_cpx&task=services.code&code=FN-1500.6250-800