Gardaí were last night investigating two stabbing incidents in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The attacks follow the murder of Gary Douch at the prison on Tuesday and the stabbing of a Nigerian man last week, writes Conor Lally
The Prison Officers Association said overcrowding was now heightening tension in the prison to dangerous levels.
Association general secretary John Clinton said something must be done to address his members' concerns. "The fact that these incidents have all happened in a week proves that overcrowding is having an impact.
"There are obvious health and safety implications for our members working in a prison housing 520 prisoners when it should only be holding 470."
News of the latest stabbings prompted criticism from the Opposition of the Government's handling of the prison service.
Labour said the fact that four violent attacks had taken place in one week in Mountjoy proved order and control had broken down. Fine Gael said the latest attacks were shocking and that overcrowding in prisons was contributing to the increasing levels of violence.
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service denied order had broken down. He said the director general of the prison service, Brian Purcell, had visited Mountjoy yesterday to discuss security arrangements with staff.
New metal detectors would be introduced to areas where prisoners congregate and a number of other security measures that were being planned would now be quickly introduced, he said.
In the latest incident, a 27- year-old Dublin man was stabbed just after noon yesterday in a cell in the A wing. He had returned from the exercise yard when he was attacked by another inmate. He sustained four stab wounds to his thigh and lower body.
He was taken to the Mater hospital where he was detained overnight. His injuries are not life-threatening. A small knife recovered at the scene has been passed on to gardaí. The injured man had been stabbed in the same wing of the prison two weeks ago.
He is from Clondalkin and is serving a six-year sentence for his role in an armed robbery. The man is a drug user and three of his brothers have died from drug-related illnesses.
In the other incident, an inmate was attacked at the prison on Thursday night. He was stabbed a number of times in the back and arm in an exercise yard of the jail's D wing. He was taken to the Mater for treatment and was back in prison last night. He is a 26-year-old Dubliner serving five years for robbery.
Labour's spokesman on justice Brendan Howlin TD said: "One would have thought that following the shocking murder of Gary Douch last Tuesday that security would have been at an all-time high in the prison, but despite that there have now been two more violent attacks."
The decision by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to close two prisons - at Spike Island, Co Cork, and the Curragh, Co Kildare - had resulted in "overcrowded and degrading conditions", he said.
Fine Gael's justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe TD said four prisons combined - Mountjoy, Castlerea, Cork and Wheatfield - were accommodating 225 prisoners more than they were designed to hold. He called on Mr McDowell to address the situation.
"The overcrowding which resulted was a key factor in the murder of Gary Douch, because an isolation cell was not available. And overcrowding appears to have played a major role in the other assaults in the last week."