NI prison officers issued with body armour
Prison officers in the North were forced to wear body armour to protect against the dissident republican threat, it was revealed today.
The danger from the gunmen has increased and individual wardens have been threatened, head of the Prison Service Robin Masefield said.
Some officers even have protection built into their homes.
The director gave evidence to Stormont’s new justice committee today.
“There are a number of steps we have already proactively taken in liaison with the police so, for example, we have issued some external body protection for staff,” he said.
“There are one or two practical measures for staff who might be perceived to be at risk or might perceive themselves to be at risk, we are prioritising those.
“We are liaising with staff associations on that and we are liaising closely with police in particular to make sure that we are alert to and aware of any generic and particular threats as they might arise.”
He said the threat level against prison staff was “moderate” but not as high as against police.
“We are conscious of an increased threat level, yes, and there was an increased number of warnings, principally but not always exclusively in relation to dissidents,” he added.
The danger to the organisation as a whole is substantial, he said.
Following the industrial dispute between management and warders Mr Masefield added all was still not right.
“The challenge that we have is that they are coming from very much a security background and an emphasis on those issues. We want to move towards the engagement with prisoners... the factors dealing with offending behaviour,” he said.
He described it as an “insular” organisation where sometimes policy did not translate into delivery.
The service has to make £2m savings this year and – because most of the running costs involved staff – that would inevitably impact on them, he said.
There is a low level of retirement from the force which hampers his ability to cut costs.
Committee member Raymond McCartney expressed concern about disciplinary procedures following the death of Colin Bell, 34, who hanged himself at the fourth attempt in Maghaberry in 2008.
The authorities and Prison Officers’ Association (POA) agreed to establish a panel to deal with such cases after some warders were found to be lying in bed watching television when they were supposed to be on duty.
“I can’t see any other circumstance where people would be looking to have some sort of panel to implement decisions which are obvious and to my mind this is back to this point about strategy and policy not being brought through to delivery,” he said.
“You can have your strategy and policy but if the POA say it is not a good strategy and not a good policy then it is not delivered and that is the practice and that is the practice from the death of Colin Bell.
“They did not agree that it was wrong that people were found sleeping on duty so therefore now they are being obstructive in terms of whatever changes have been made.”
SDLP member Alban Maginness said it was “outrageous blackmail” by the POA.
Mr Masefield said management did not comply with some parts of the code of conduct and added it was important people faced fair disciplinary proceedings.
