A CLOSE supervision facility for difficult and high security prisoners is to be built within Portlaoise prison.
Prisoners who have been moved from prison to prison over the years, because of indiscipline, will be specially catered for in the new unit, the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said yesterday. The unit will hold 60 prisoners.
There will also be a "lifestyles" unit for recovering drug addicts who have been through detoxification and primary treatment therapy in Dublin prisons. A violence prevention unit will hold prisoners with a track record of using violence against fellow inmates and supervisory staff.