Assaults on prison officers has become ‘accepted norm’

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.

Speaking last night as officers gathered in Kilkenny for their annual conference, Prison Officers’ Association president Stephen Delaney criticised the Government for not allowing dogs or batons and the removal of remission to be used as a way of enforcing rules in prison.

He called for an independent analysis of the assaults being committed by inmates against staff, which will lead to prisons being a safer place to work.