Prison chiefs: Crime gangs do not rule our jails

Prison chiefs are struggling to deal with as many as 22 criminal factions in individual jails — but reject claims by prison officers they are losing control to gangs.

The head of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) said they were now “more on top” of the problem than they ever were.

Director general Michael Donnellan also described as “intolerable” attacks by inmates on prison officers, including one on Wednesday in which an officer in Dublin’s Cloverhill Prison was slashed in the face and arms with a razor by a prisoner.

Speaking at the annual conference of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) in Galway, Mr Donnellan said there were a large number of criminal factions, often subgroups of gangs, in prisons.

He said there were 18 such factions in Mountjoy Prison and 22 in Wheatfield Prison, both in Dublin.

“It is a challenge to manage these factions. They have to be managed in a separate way,” said Mr Donnellan.

He said a senior management group met with governors and assessed gang members and decided how to separate them from other factions. He said the IPS’s operational support unit targeted the smuggling of drugs and phones by gangs.

But Mr Donnellan rejected claims from the POA that management was loosing control of some prisons, or some wings, to gangs.

“We will not allow any prisoner to dominate our environment. We are in charge of our environment. We will run that safely without fear or favour and gangs will not rule our prisons.”

Mr Donnellan said attacks on prison officers by inmates were “absolutely intolerable” and all measures were being taken to address it.

Addressing the conference, POA president Stephen Delaney blamed the overcrowding situation for preventing the effective isolation of gang members.

“The gang member or disruptive prisoner who has no intention of complying with the system is able to act with impunity within that system once they are covered by the shroud of overcrowding,” said Mr Delaney.

“In an overcrowded situation, attacks on other prisoners and prison officers are more likely and less difficult to control. In the past 24 hours a prison officer has had his face and hands slashed with razor blades in an unexpected and regrettably less infrequent occurrence.

“A reduction in overcrowding can be a first step in tacking other issues such as violence, drug use, intimidation and gang culture.”

POA general secretary John Clinton accused some governors of being “soft” on inmates who attacked prison officers.

“Local prisoner governors do have the authority to deal with these issues,” he said. “And some of them are soft on attacks on staff .”