Prison officers claim new unit staffing inadequate
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern announced on Tuesday that the unit would open “this week”.
He said the new block would house 100 inmates and was the first tranche of 400 new spaces being created this year to help address a worsening overcrowding problem in the country’s jails.
But prison officers at the Roscommon jail are extremely concerned at what they consider to be inadequate extra staffing levels to manage the prisoners.
A source inside the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said they had “ongoing negotiations” with the Prison Service on the issue.
“We welcome opening these areas to alleviate overcrowding, but manning levels are well below what they should be,” said the source.
“Obviously, the minister has made the decision to open up Castlerea regardless of our concerns. Our problem is the amount of staff they are putting in falls far short of what we see as safe.”
He said the Prison Service maintained there was a moratorium in place on public sector recruitment and that “everyone had to bite to bullet”.
The source said 114 inmates, not 100, were going into the new unit. He said this was 114 additional prisoners and did not include the excess inmates currently crammed into Castlerea Prison.
Official figures from the Prison Service show there were 271 prisoners in Castlerea on May 22. It says there is a bed capacity of 228, suggesting an overcrowding level of 43.
But the POA maintain the real overcrowding level is around 120. They say the design capacity of the prison is 150 and that many of the single cells are doubled up with bunk beds.
Some observers speculate that the POA may seek to refer the staffing issue to third-party intervention.
The new block at Castlerea will include a “challenging behaviour unit”, with 26 cells, to house troublesome prisoners. There will also be a section for prisoners under protection.
Meanwhile, expert speakers from here and Britain attended a conference on prisons last night, organised by the Irish Penal Reform Trust.
The keynote speakers were Professor Andrew Coyle of Kings College London, who spoke on the work of the Commission on English Prisons and Professor Fergus McNeill of the University of Glasgow, who covered the review process of the Scottish Prisons Commission.
Prison Service director general Brian Purcell and criminologist Ian O’Donnell of University College Dublin also contributed.
