Several hundred Prison Service staff will lose their jobs in the North next year under a fundamental overhaul, it was revealed.

Unacceptable management failures in the North's prisons mean they deliver an ineffective service despite having more staff than inmates, a damning report has found.

Prison officers last night forcibly removed a group of republican inmates who barricaded themselves into a dining hall at the North’s top security jail.

The governor of the North's main high security prison has resigned less than five months after taking up the post.

Some prison officers in the North have struggled to obtain training in dealing with suicidal inmates, an inspection report said today.

Prisoners in the North are confined to their cells too frequently after breaking the rules, it was revealed today.

Sixteen prison officers have been suspended from duty in the North's top-security Maghaberry Prison in Co Antrim, it was announced today.

More needs to be done by the police and prison services in the North to improve arrangements for the management of the risks posed by sex offenders, according to a report published today.

Prison officers in the North are to be subjected to random searches by sniffer dogs as part of tough new measures to clamp down on the trafficking of drugs in jails, it was revealed today.

Responsibility for the destruction of security files on hundreds of former paramilitary prisoners in the top security Maze Prison was today laid at the feet of a Northern Ireland prison governor who has since died.

A blueprint for the future of the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) is to be drawn up, it was announced today.