Michael Clifford: How has nothing been done about safety concerns for prison officers in Portlaoise?
Freddie Thompson made a complaint to the governor. File picture: Collins Photos Dublin
On Thursday in the Dáil, there was a call for an investigation into a serious issue involving the safety of prison officers who work in the most notorious prison block in the State.
The issue was one that was reported on in detail in this newspaper last September.
Nothing was done on foot of that report.
Some months earlier, an investigation into the matter had been completed by an external investigator. Arguably, the gardaí should have been informed of the matter at that stage.
Nothing was done.
Now the matter has reached the floor of the national parliament. If nothing continues to be done, questions arise as to accountability within the prison service on what is a major issue concerning personal safety and security.
Aontú’s Peadar Tóibín laid out some of the facts during leaders' questions. He mentioned a man named “Tom” who worked in Block A of Portlaoise Prison, where prisoners like Freddie Thompson and the Dundons and Kinahan cartel members are housed.
“It is alleged that in October 2018, a prisoner came to the governor of Portlaoise prison and told the governor that three officers were constantly coming into his cell. He said that he felt these officers wanted him to do damage to Tom, the assistant chief officer.
“A high level meeting between the governors was held afterwards regarding what the prisoner had said. However, it is alleged no action was taken. Tom, who was a target according to the prisoner’s words, alleges that he was advised to carry on working and that he must wait until a written complaint was made before action was undertaken.”
The reported that Thompson, serving life for murder, made such a complaint in May 2019. He stated that three officers were making comments to prisoners about the man identified by Mr Tóibín as Tom and two other senior officers, saying one was “a fucking idiot” and that they will “tell you they will do something and then not do it, persons not to be believed”.
The stuff directed at Tom, Thompson said, “may put his life in danger if prisoners were to believe that he was lying and could not be believed”.
John Naughton has loads of experience in the area.
After extensive interviews and assembly of documents, he wrote a report.
He noted that he found one of the three officers who were the subject of the complaint “guarded and not forthcoming at interview”.
He stated that another of the three had said that Thompson’s complaint was fabricated and without foundation. The investigator stated: “I do not accept that this is the case.”
He found that it was “undeniable that some officers were making comments to deliberately try to undermine the work” of one of the senior officers.
In conclusion, Mr Naughton stated: “Based on my review of all the evidence gathered, and taking into account the statements of the complainant, witnesses and prison personnel, documentary evidence of the issues involved, I am of the opinion that there are grounds for the complaint.”
What happened after that was just as worrying. Nobody called the cops. The report, which procedurally, should have been passed to the prison governor, sat in the prison service HQ in Longford for eight months.
Following that, there was a decision not to proceed with any disciplinary process for the three officers. The reasoning behind this decision is understood to be “the passage of time” since the complaint.
A number of sources in the prison service expressed shock to the at the outcome.
One said: “It doesn’t bear thinking about. What these fellas were up to, and found to have been up to, was off the Richter scale. You don’t mess around with the kind of prisoners that are in A Block and you certainly don’t give them the impression that your colleagues are lying to them and are idiots.”
Now the matter has reached the floor of the Dáil.
On Thursday, Mr Tóibín told the House that he had thought long and hard about raising the issue in that forum.
“The reason I have done so is because I have called the director general of the Irish Prison Service a number of times to see if I can discuss them with her. I have also put a question to the minister for justice on why actions were not taken on foot of the Naughton report. The minister has not given me any information as to why actions were not taken.
“I followed up on the matter as best I could via all the avenues that one would expect a deputy who seeks to have justice done for individuals in the pay of the state to do. But so far I have found that doors have been closed to me.”
He called for a full investigation into the matter. Responding, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he was sorry to hear about Tom’s experience.
“I will see the minister for justice later today and let her know that the deputy is concerned about this matter and would like a more detailed response if that is possible," Mr Varadkar said.
So that’s it.
Mr Tóibín would be advised not to hold his breath. Justice within the prison system, for officers and for those incarcerated, is not high on any list of political priorities.
Far more likely that cases like this are long-fingered and then when a serious incident or tragedy occurs, there will be much breast beating about how things could have ever gotten so bad.
