CHAPTER 260 -
To provide, in place of the Prisons Ordinance, for matters relating
to Prisons. 20th April, 1976.
Enacted by Act IX of 1976, as amended by Acts: XI of 1977, XLIX
of 1981, XIII of 1983, XIII of 1990 and VII of 1999.
1. The title of this Act is Prisons Act.
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -
"Director" means the Director of Correctional Services and
includes any other public officer authorised on his behalf by
such Director;
"Minister" means the Minister responsible for the prisons
and includes, to the extent of the authority given, any person
authorised on his behalf for any purpose of this Act;
"other person employed in the prisons" means such other person
who is not a prisons officer and who may from time to time be
employed or assigned duties, in a prison;
"prison" means the Corradino Prison and includes any other
place or building declared or deemed to be a prison under the
provisions of article 3 of this Act;
"prisoner" means any person who is confined in any prison;
"prisons officer" means any public officer of whatever grade
or category, who is appointed or seconded to serve in the Department
of Correctional Services and includes the Director.
3. (1) The Minister may by order published in the Gazette
declare any place or building or part of a building
to be a prison.
(2) The Minister may also appoint any suitable place
outside the precincts of a prison for the custody of
any prisoner,
or other person liable to be confined in prison, who
is subject to quarantine or is suffering from any contagious
or infectious
disease within the meaning of any law for the time
being in force;
and any such place shall be guarded only if and to
the extent that the Director deems it necessary or
expedient.
(3) A prisoner shall be deemed to be confined in a
prison while he is being moved to or from a prison
or from one
prison to
another or while he is under treatment or observation
in any hospital.
4. (1) The following persons shall be confined in prison:
(a) any person who has been sentenced by a court of
criminal jurisdiction in Malta to the punishment of
imprisonment
or detention or who, having been sentenced by a competent
authority
to pay
a fine (multa or ammenda) or costs, fails to pay such
fine or costs in any case in which, according to law,
such fine
or costs
are, if not paid, convertible into imprisonment or
detention;
(b) any person who has been sentenced to the punishment
of death, imprisonment or detention by any other court
or by
any authority
in Malta authorised by law to inflict any such punishments,
unless such law appoints any other place in which the
punishment is
to be undergone;
(c) any person who, having been sentenced abroad by
a foreign court or other competent authority to a punishment
involving
deprivation of liberty for a limited or unlimited period
of time on account of a criminal offence, is sent to
Malta to
continue
serving such sentence in Malta in accordance with any
treaty, convention, agreement or understanding for
that
purpose
for the time being in force between Malta and the foreign
country
concerned
or which applies to both such countries or to which
both countries are a party;
(d) any person who has been arraigned under arrest
and charged before the competent court for an offence
in
respect of which
the courts in Malta have jurisdiction according to
law, or is under examination before a court of criminal
inquiry,
or who
is committed for trial by the said court or by any
other competent authority, or who is under trial in
Malta,
or who
is the subject
of extradition proceedings, unless such person is released
on bail.
(2) It shall be lawful to confine in a prison:
(a) any person who, having been sentenced to give security
to keep the peace and to be of good behaviour or to
watch over the
conduct of a minor is, upon failure to give such security,
liable to be detained and kept in custody, and any
person who is arrested
by a competent court for non-payment of the sum in
which he bound himself;
(b) any person, whose arrest or detention according
to law is ordered by any court or other competent authority;
(c) any person who, under any extradition arrangement,
is liable to be surrendered to a foreign country;
(d) any person detained in custody under the provisions
of the Immigration Act, other than under article 10
or 22 thereof;
(e) any person who has been arrested for an offence.
(3) Where any prison is used for both men and women,
separate places or buildings or parts of a building
shall be used
for the men and for the women respectively so as to
prevent the
one category of prisoners from seeing or communicating
with the other
category.
5. Repealed by Act VII of 1999.
6. (1) The Minister may by regulations provide for:
(a) the good order and management of prisons;
(b) the admission, removal or discharge of prisoners;
(c) the diet, clothing, maintenance, discipline, instruction,
employment and correction of prisoners, including the
work prisoners may be required to perform by way of
discipline, instruction
or employment;
(d) the means for facilitating the identification of
prisoners and their classification into categories
accordingly;
(e) the manner in which and conditions under which
a remission of a portion of the sentence may be earned
by industry
and good conduct;
(f) the granting of gratuities to prisoners and the
remuneration of prisoners for work done by them;
(g) the temporary absence of prisoners from the prison
for any legitimate purpose;
(h) the temporary removal of a prisoner to any hospital
or similar institution in circumstances not contemplated
under
the provisions
of article 3 of this Act;
(i) the conditions under which visitors may be allowed
in the precincts of a prison;
(j) the duties and conduct of the prison officers and
of other persons employed in the prisons;
(k) the penalties which may be inflicted for any offence
committed against the provisions of any such regulations;
(l) generally any other matter relating to the prisons
and to the proper treatment of prisoners or which may
appear to the
Minister to be necessary or expedient for the better
carrying out of the provisions of this Act.
(2) Any gratuity or remuneration granted to a prisoner
under the provisions of this article shall not be attached
by a
garnishee order.
7. (1) Where any person, not being a prisons officer
or other person employed in the prisons, without lawful
authority,
introduces or attempts to introduce into any part of
the precincts of
a prison any article whatsoever not allowed under any
regulations made under this Act, or conveys or attempts
to convey any
such article out of any prison, shall be guilty of
an offence and
shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine (multa) not
exceeding one hundred liri.
(2) Where the article which is introduced or sought
to be introduced into a prison as aforesaid consists
of
arms proper
as defined
by article 64 of the Criminal Code, or an explosive
substance as defined by article 314 of the Criminal
Code, or any
burning or corrosive fluid or substance, or any drug
which is a dangerous
drug under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, or which
is a drug controlled by regulations made under the
Medical
and
Kindred
Professions Ordinance, the punishment shall be imprisonment
for a period of not less than one and not more than
eighteen months
unless a higher punishment is provided for under any
other law.
(3) Where any offence under the foregoing provisions
of this article is committed by a prisons officer or
by any
other
person employed in the prisons the punishment shall
be a fine (multa)
not exceeding five hundred liri in the case of a conviction
under the provisions of sub-article (1) of this article,
and imprisonment
from six months to two years in the case of a conviction
under the provisions of sub-article (2) of this article
unless a
higher punishment is provided for under any other law.
8. (1) There shall be a Board of Visitors of the Prisons,
composed of such members as shall be appointed annually
by the President
of Malta.
(2) The Visitors shall hold office from the 1st January
of the year for which they shall be appointed.
(3) If any vacancy in the Board occurs during the year,
on account of death, resignation or for any other cause,
the
President shall,
as soon as practicable, appoint another person to fill
the vacancy:
Provided that the Board and the members thereof may
act notwithstanding any such vacancy.
(4) The members of the Board shall exercise such functions
as shall be assigned to them by regulations made under
article 6
of this Act.
(5) The Minister responsible for justice, the Chief
Justice, the judges, the magistrates and the Attorney-General
shall be ex officio Special Visitors of the prisons,
and as such
it shall
be lawful for them to have at any time access to the
prisons for the purpose of inspecting such prisons
and
any of the
prisoners therein. They shall enter in the official
Visitors’ Book
any remarks which they may deem proper in regard to
the prisons and prisoners, and the book shall be produced
to the members
of the Board of Visitors on their next visit to the
prisons.
9. (1) With effect from the commencement of this Act,
every sentence of imprisonment, whether with or without
hard
labour, passed
upon any convicted prisoner shall subject the prisoner
during the term of such sentence to be imprisoned and
to perform
such work as the Director may in accordance with regulations
made
under this Act direct.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law,
no person shall be sentenced by a court or by any other
competent
authority
to imprisonment with hard labour.
(3) Every law conferring power on a court or on a competent
authority to pass a sentence of imprisonment with hard
labour shall be
construed as conferring a power to pass a sentence
of imprisonment for a term not exceeding a term for
which
a sentence of
imprisonment with hard labour could have been passed
immediately before
the commencement of this Act.
10. The Corradino Civil Prisons Regulations, 1931,
and any regulations made under the provisions of the
Prisons
Ordinance
shall, until
other provision is made under or by virtue of this
Act, continue in force, and have effect as if made
under this
Act, and
may be varied, altered or repealed accordingly.
Prisons Officers
11. (1) Prisons officers shall carry out such duties
as may be assigned to them by regulations made under
this
Act or
by any
direction of the Minister.
(2) In the performance of their duties within a prison
and when on escort duties with prisoners outside the
prisons, prisons officers shall be vested with all
such functions,
powers and
duties as are by law vested in an officer of the Malta
Police
Force.
12. (1) The Minister, with the concurrence of the Minister
responsible for finance, may make regulations for the
granting of pensions
to persons who have served in the Department of Correctional
Services or to their legal representatives or dependants.
(2) Any regulations made under this article may with
retroactive effect confer a benefit upon or remove
a disability attaching
to any person or class of persons.
(3) Any pension granted under this Act shall be computed
in accordance with the provisions in force at the actual
date
of the officer’s
retirement.
(4) No regulation made under this article shall have
effect unless it has been approved by a prior resolution
of the
House of Representatives.
13. There shall be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated
Fund all such sums of money as may from time to time
be granted by way of pension in accordance with this
Act.
14. It shall be lawful for the Minister to remove from
his office at any time an officer of the Department
of Correctional
Services
who -
(i) is considered unlikely to become, or has ceased
to be, an efficient officer of the Department of Correctional
Services;
(ii) is incapable by reason of some infirmity of mind
or body of discharging the duties of his office when
such
infirmity is likely to be permanent; and
(iii) it is considered, having regard to the conditions
of the Department of Correctional Services, the usefulness
of
the office
thereto, and all the circumstances of the case, should
in the public interest no longer serve as a member
of the Department
of Correctional Services.
15. No pension shall be granted to any officer of the
Department of Correctional Services except on his retirement
from
the Department of Correctional Services in any one
of the following
cases:
(i) on or after attaining the age of fifty-five years
or if he has completed twenty-five years’ service
in the Department of Correctional Services after he
attains the age of fifty;
(ii) on the abolition of his office;
(iii) on compulsory retirement for the purpose of facilitating
improvement in the organisation of the Department
of Correctional Services, by which greater efficiency
and economy can be
effected;
(iv) in the case of termination of employment in
the public interest as provided in this Act;
(v) on medical evidence to the satisfaction of
the Minister that such office of the Department
of Correctional
Services
is incapable
by reason of infirmity of mind or body of discharging
the duties of his office and that such infirmity
is likely to be permanent.
16. Where the services of an officer of the
Department of Correctional Services are terminated
on the
ground referred to in paragraph
(iii) of article 14 of this Act, and a pension
cannot otherwise be granted under the provisions
of this
Act, such officer
may be granted a pension not exceeding in
amount that for which
he would be eligible if he retired from the
Department of
Correctional Services in the circumstances
described in paragraph (v) of
article
15 of this Act.
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