Prison bosses are to trial a new technology to tackle the rising threat posed by drones smuggling drugs and weapons into prison.

The return of overcrowding in Irish prisons is creating an atmosphere for the “bully to thrive” and to pressurise vulnerable inmates to smuggle drugs and weapons, according to prison officers.

Two prison officers were slashed with a makeshift blade yesterday, one across his forehead, in an attack carried out by an inmate with a “track record” of assaulting jail staff.

Prison bosses are considering arming with batons and body cameras officers in a new facility for the most dangerous prisoners.

Assaults on prison officers by inmates have increased over the last three years – but representatives claim the figures still do not capture the full scale of violence.

Prison officers believe the rule of law has “disappeared” from prisons and assaults on officers have become an accepted norm, according to the president of their representative body.

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) has described a firebomb attack on a prison officer’s car in Cork over the weekend as deeply “disturbing and sinister”.

Riot squad teams were deployed over 370 times at Portlaoise maximum security prison last year.

Six prison officers were taken to hospital after they intervened in a huge fight involving up to 20 inmates at the Midlands Prison.

Three prison officers at Mountjoy jail have had to take security measures, including extra precautions in their homes, due to death threats from gangland figures.

Prison authorities will consider the need for a high-security unit for gang bosses after Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald opened up the possibility of such a move.

The Prison Officers’ Association claims it has been denied a face-to-face meeting with Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan in relation to serious concerns it has regarding the investigation of assaults by inmates on prison officers.

A special prison unit is being set up to house the country’s most violent prisoners.

Prison Service boss Michael Donnellan has rejected criticisms from prison officers that violent inmates were being rewarded by special gardens and luxuries like fish tanks.

Officers at the country’s only maximum security jail have shared a €1m windfall in ‘danger money’ backpay for dealing with some of the most dangerous criminals.

Prison bosses are considering the roll-out of weapons amnesties following the success of an amnesty in Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison.

Prisoners took an inmate hostage, broke his arm and slashed his face, during a serious riot at the country’s remand prison yesterday.

The suspect in the fatal stabbing of a “model inmate” at Cork Prison was cleared for kitchen duty despite a history of violent knife crime.

The man who heads up Irish jails said yesterday that “a humane prison service is about trying to take people who are broken and build them back up again”.

Prison chiefs ‘provocative’ by showing gardaí how system works

Prison officers are to be given anti-stab vests, incapacitant sprays and extendable batons in response to the serious stabbing of a prison officer in a high-profile escape last February.

Industrial action planned at the country’s prisons has been deferred following an intervention by the Labour Relations Commission.

Gardaí now suspect four people were involved in the escape of Derek Brockwell from custody at Tallaght Hospital two weeks ago.

Officers at the State’s maximum security jail have won their claim to hold onto a special allowance for dealing with some of the country’s most dangerous criminals.

Derek Brockwell left a prison officer with his “intestines hanging out” such was the ferocity of his knife attack, gardaí have said.

Escaped convict Derek Brockwell was in a serious condition in a Belfast hospital last night after being injured when confronted by police. PSNI used a Taser stun gun to incapacitate him with reports suggesting he had injured himself with a knife, though it is unknown whether it was deliberate.

The Garda ombudsman is investigating a separate complaint made by the victim of a vicious assault which was highlighted in the Irish Examiner this week.

A Garda investigation has been launched into a failure to properly investigate an allegation by a Polish woman that she was raped and sexually assaulted while being held against her will in her assailant’s apartment.

The grooming of children or minors for sex abuse or exploitation including arranging online to meet them will be a criminal offence under draft laws to be published today.

Prison officers are set to conduct a second day of industrial action today at the country’s only dedicated remand prison in a dispute over health and safety.

An offer of sunscreen to two inmates who had climbed on to a jail’s roof was “foolish”, the UK's Prisons Minister has said.

At least 500 victims, one of whom was just two years of age, were abused by the TV presenter Jimmy Savile during his reign as one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, research shows.

Prison officers claim they are being attacked with "impunity" and that jail chiefs are not taking disciplinary action against the inmates responsible.

Stalling development of a peace centre at a former paramilitary prison is a mistake that could jeopardise jobs and the peace process, Martin McGuinness has claimed.

Prison officers have called for a former jail which held some of the North's most notorious paramilitaries to be bulldozed after proposals to build a peace centre there stalled.

Five members of prison staff have been suspended after Woolwich murder suspect Michael Adebolajo lost two teeth when he was restrained in jail.

The practice of prisoners “slopping out” will be “gone forever” by early 2016, the prisons boss has said.

The country should have a dedicated “gangland prison” to house convicted crime bosses, according to prison officers.

Every complaint made by inmates against prison officers under a new independent investigation system have so far turned out to be baseless.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation have rejected the possible extension to the Croke Park agreement.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the Government will reflect on the decisions of unions on the proposed Croke Park II Agreement.

Government plans to save €1bn from the public service paybill under Croke Park II were given a major boost last night when the leadership of Siptu said it would be campaigning for a yes vote.