Call for ‘gangland prison’ to house crime bosses

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

The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said gang leaders ruled over inmates in what were akin to mini-empires in jails.

“There’s actually a huge difficulty for us to try and manage these people, especially those involved in gang warfare, because they exercise a huge degree of control over other prisoners within the system,” Jim Mitchell, deputy general secretary, told the POA annual conference in Athlone.

He said many inmates owed money to these gangs and to pay off debts “engage and carry out acts” they would not normally do.

“For us it makes it very hard to narrow it down to the particular individuals that are in charge of the gangs and the pressure they exert.”

He said that for many years, staff have been trying to find specialist regimes to try and isolate such inmates. But he said the best solution was to put all gangland criminals into one prison.

“We have been looking for that kind of regime, that you would take these people out of the mainstream population, where they exert a huge degree of pressure on bigger, bigger numbers making it more difficult for us to manage it. Where there is a more isolated community you can go and exercise regimes that will control them.”

Meanwhile, general secretary John Clinton, said he welcomed the visiting committee to St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders which, he said, complimented officers for their work performance.

“This compliment, which seems to contradict previous reports, does not alter the underlying problem, namely that prison officers are not trained to do this work.”

He said the stinging criticism of prison officers in the Inspector of Prison’s report “was unfair” given staff did not have childcare skills. He welcomed the Government’s decision to take all 17 year-olds out of St Patrick’s next year, but said it needed to happen sooner.

“Further consideration is needed on the supports and interventions needed by these young people when incarcerated,” he said.