Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl proposed the Home Leave system as a true incentive to prisoners, and as a serious support to their families. In a few words, Home Leave is a system with which a prisoner is given the possibility to visit, under certain conditions, his close relatives or intimate friends every month at home.

What follows is the basic document issued by Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl as a guide for the national campaign.

Maltese Version

The Home Leave proposal is mainly intended to diminish some bad side-effects of the administration of penal justice, particularly in relation to the families of prisoners, to the administration of discipline at the prisons, and to the affective verve of prisoners.

Disordered justice?

Every crime creates some kind of disorder. The courts try to correct that disorder with the least possible bad effects for all the parties involved.

Incarceration, as a corrective punishment, is one of the most disciplinary means that, notwithstanding the good intentions of the courts and legislators, effectively creates bad effects in diverse sectors. These bad effects increase whenever the situation at the prisons is counter-productive to the intentions of justice administrators.

The present situation at the prisons is such that the prisoners therein live a life of "reclusive vagrancy". The larger part of the prisoners simply sit idle from morning till night. If they are not narrating their criminal experiences to each other, with many a flourish and much colouring, and thus learning each other's criminal methods, they merely act like kindergarten children, and tease each other. The wardens and the most weak prisoners are their most facile and common target.

The prisons, then, reacting to this situation, is organised in such a way so as to function as a "sedative". It is intended to cause a soothing effect on the prisoners in order to quieten their disordered fantasies and whims. The prison authorities, in fact, are particularly adept to do two things: first, not to allow any prisoner to escape; and, secondly, to keep the prisoners as still as possible (and use punishments to this effect).

Main aims of the Home Leave proposal

The Home Leave proposal is intended to:

• Provide a serious incentive to sentenced prisoners so as to behave themselves while incarcerated
• Facilitate order and discipline within the prisons
• Increases prisoners' self-confidence
• Balances the affective emotions of prisoners and their close relations (including children)
• Sustains the family relationships of prisoners

Operating the Home Leave system

The attainment of Home Leave by a prisoner shall be automatic under the following conditions:

• It shall be attained once a month
• A prisoner shall be eligible for Home Leave after served one third of at least one of his sentences (commuted without the removal of remission)
• During his Home Leave a prisoner shall be accompanied by only one security officer
• Only one Home Leave may be missed if, in the period from the preceding Home Leave, a prisoner was found to have violated some prison rule
• Any serious abuse on the part of a prisoner during his Home Leave makes him/her ineligible for Home Leave for the rest of his/her sentence
• The definition of "family" in this proposal shall be according to the dispositions of the Prison Regulations

Home Leave as an incentive

Prisoners would behave better and make a more economical use of their time if they had incentives to do these. Nobody does anything for nothing. And prisoners are no exception. Like everybody else they need encouragement and support.

An incentive in a person's life means that s/he has a reason for which to do something, an aim with which s/he acquires some advantage for himself. The prisoner, whose whole life is controlled by others, and who does not have the freedom of doing anything without the permission of others, needs a lot of encouragement. It is true that s/he has to pay his debts to society, but this does not mean that he should not have motives for his actions.

When a prison has an incentive encouraging him/her to behave, at the same time he will have a good and sufficient reason to distance him/herself from bad actions.

Unfortunately, the current system at the prisons has few incentives, if any, even if the new regulations mention incentives in various articles. The present system, in fact, insists more on punishments than incentives. This system is wrong, and only helps the prisoner's situation to deteriorate.

The principle to be used in a system of incentives is this: reward good behaviour to avoid bad behaviour. Our prisons do not use this principle very much.

An incentive not a privilege

What shall be now stated rests very much on the Woolf Report. This report was issued by Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf in 1991 with the aim of reforming the penal and corrective systems in England and Wales. The report is the most authoritative document on prison matters that was issued in Europe for these last hundred years.

Some matters at the prisons are called "privileges". Considering the circumstances, it is a very incorrect word to use. The Woolf Report expressly stated that such matters “should not be described as privileges”. The word normally indicates some advantage given to someone due to some special grace.

Privileges are matters that are still considered necessary in prison life. For example, it is called a privilege that a prisoner calls his/her family once a day, or that s/he meets his family once a week under surveillance, or that s/he possesses a radio or television in his/her little cell, or even that s/he goes and returns from work outside the facility during the last three months of his/her sentence.

A privilege, then, is called so since it can be revoked as a punishment against some infringement of prison regulations.

The Woolf Report states that “these facilities should be part of a prisoner’s normal expectation”. This is far from what exists in Malta's prisons today. But this was also the situation in England and Wales before the reforms made by Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf.

In fact, the Report states thus: “A system of incentives cannot be grafted onto the system of ‘privileges’. A system of minor incentives would be hard to administer fairly and without fear of prejudice. Incentives should be built into the prison system”.

Is Home Leave just another privilege?

As the Woolf Report stated, the system of incentives and the system of privileges must not be adopted together. The system of privileges is out-dated and, as the Woolf Report itself stated: “the discretion allowed to governors to grant and withdraw selected ‘privileges’ has left prisoners aggrieved, and with some justification”.

Home Leave is not yet another privilege, but a serious and powerful incentive to reward good behaviour and avoid bad behaviour. As an incentive, Home Leave is also most efficacious, since it simultaneously goes to the root of many problems, mostly because of the bad effects caused by the separation from the family.

Problems generated by the separation from the family

The separation from the family:

• Creates problems due to lack of sexual relief, both to the prisoner and to those who close to him/her with ties of matrimony and/or affection
• Estranges sons and daughters from their parents, and vice versa
• Encourages matrimonial infidelity
• Facilitates lack of knowledge of familiar problems on the part of the prisoner
• Emphasizes the lack of support of the prisoner in family responsibilities
• Increases the sense of isolation in those who are close to the prisoner with ties of matrimony and/or affection
• Breaks up the family

Home Leave in other countries

The Home Leave system, though called with different names ("conjugal visits", etc.), is used successfully in many other countries that are much larger than ours, and in which the situation is much more complicated than ours. In certain countries, their version of Home Leave is used without the surveillance of security officers.

The Woolf Report was in favour that system such as Home Leave be given greater importance and space. “Home leave should be extended,” stated the Report, “Home leave should not be confined just to long term prisoners. Home leave restores prisoners’ self-confidence, helps maintain family relationships, and is an incentive to behave well in prison. It also eases pressure on prisoners and on staffing.” The Report insists that “provision should be made for private family visits for prisoners serving long sentences”.

The family cherishes very much family values together with the cohesion and solidity they generate to the social fabric. Home Leave is a means with which families of prisoners do not crumble away but, on the contrary, continue to grow stronger. This benefits the prisoners themselves, their families and children, and all the Maltese society.

See also: The effects of incarceration on prisoners' families