Prison officers ‘being attacked with impunity’

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

The Prison Officers’ Association said that two of their members at Mountjoy Jail had boiling water thrown over them last week.

Speaking at their annual conference in Sligo yesterday, association president Stephen Delaney said there had been an alarming rise in attacks.

“Violent and disruptive prisoners have to be managed better within the prison estate,” he said.

“Assaults on staff continue: Only last week in Mountjoy there were three separate incidents of assault, two officers had boiling water thrown over them, another was struck viciously about the head and the other had a blood spillage smeared over his face.

“Only last Monday, an officer was bitten by a prisoner which required the officer to have hospital treatment. Where else in the State is this type of behaviour a feature of a worker’s daily life?”

Jim Mitchell, POA deputy general secretary, said that the life of a prison officer was “probably the most dangerous job in the State”.

“In the last 12 months, we negotiated a policy whereby violent and disruptive prisoners are dealt with in the appropriate manner,” said Mr Mitchell. “Unfortunately it has come to light that local management are by-passing elements of this.

“The same prisoners are acting with impunity and attacking our members with alarming regularity.

“We’ve negotiated a good way of dealing with violent and disruptive prisoners. Managers are turning around and saying ‘no, we’ll do it this way’,”

The association also criticised the Inspector of Prisons and called for the establishment of an independent ombudsman to investigate prisoner complaints.

Mr Delaney said it is not satisfactory that the Inspector of Prisons oversees the complaints procedure.

A complaints procedure was introduced last year but prison officers say it is overly weighted in favour of the complainant.

The POA said vexatious complaints are part of the system and 94% of complaints are not upheld.

The recent Commission of Investigation report into the death of Gary Douch in Mountjoy recommended the establishment of a prison ombudsman and the POA said it fully supports this to investigate prisoner complaints.