&37*HQHUDO5HSRUW Report on the periodic visit to Malta in May 2008 and response of the Maltese authorities (treatment of prisoners, detention centres for irregular migrants, and access to a lawyer during police custody) 40. The findings made by the CPT’s delegation at the Corradino Correctional Facility, Malta’s only prison, were of such scope and seriousness that the Committee recommended the carrying out of an independent and comprehensive audit of the establishment. The most important concerns included the absence of a qualified Prison Director, an inadequate number of trained staff, and the existence of informal power structures within the prison, thereby placing numerous inmates in a submissive position vis-à-vis gang-type practices and allowing a considerable amount of drug trafficking. Arrangements for the provision of health care to prisoners also left a great deal to be desired; the report contains a series of recommendations on this subject. And serious concern is expressed about the practice of occasionally detaining children under the age of 16 at the establishment. As regards the conditions of detention, the CPT’s delegation found that significant efforts continued to be made to improve the quality of prisoner accommodation; nevertheless, much remained to be done in several parts of the prison. Similarly, the situation as regards activities for prisoners, including those serving long sentences, was not satisfactory. In their response, the Maltese authorities place particular emphasis on an audit carried out by a newly created Board of Inquiry, whose recommendations reiterate many of the issues raised in the CPT’s report. The authorities commit themselves to implementing the recommendations and also make reference to ongoing refurbishment projects in the prison as well as to initial steps towards the replacement of police officers by prison officers in the establishment. 41. The situation found in the three centres visited for persons detained under the Immigration Act had not substantially improved since the CPT’s previous visit in 2005. Detainees continued to be held for prolonged periods in poor, if not very poor, material conditions and with a total absence of purposeful activities. In addition to recommendations aimed at improving the conditions of detention, the CPT requests the Maltese authorities to refrain from accommodating detainees at the Hermes Block at Lyster Barrack’s Detention Centre pending its refurbishment, and to replace the tent compound at the same centre by a permanent structure. More generally, the CPT calls upon the Maltese authorities to move away from a crisis management approach based upon temporary solutions and, instead, to focus on durable, long-term solutions to the problems identified by the Committee.