POA calls for reopening Spike Island and Curragh prisons

The Prison Officers Association (POA) is calling for the re-opening of Spike Island and the Curragh prisons to deal with the current crisis in the system.

In the last 10 days, one man was brutally killed, and three others have been stabbed in Mountjoy prison alone. Other incidents have been reported at Cork prison.

The POA's deputy general-secretary Eugene Dennehy has described the current situation at Irish prisons as "desperate".

He has claimed that the lack of libraries, workshops and back-to-work programmes is a key factor in the outbreak of prison violence.

Overcrowding and drugs also has a part to play in the vicious assaults, according to Mr Dennehy.

According to POA figures, Mountjoy should house a maximum of 450 prisoners, but at the moment 520 are serving time there.

Cork prison's capacity is 150, but almost twice this number, around 270, are behind bars in the compound.

Mr Dennehy said that the opening of Spike Island and the Curragh would be one way of lessening the overcrowding crisis, leading to safer prisons.