The Irish Prison Service has agreed to approach the Department of Finance for additional funding for workshops and other rehabilitative programmes at Mountjoy Prison following an outbreak of violence at the Dublin jail, the Prison Officers' Association (POA) has said.
A delegation of senior officials from the prison service met representatives from the POA in Dublin yesterday.
Association general secretary John Clinton said the POA had also raised the issue of reopening the closed prisons at Spike Island, Cork, and the Curragh, Co Kildare. He said the prison service delegation agreed it would formally put the request to the director general of the prison service, Brian Purcell.
"It was a long and difficult meeting because the prison service delegation didn't agree with us that there was overcrowding in the prison system," Mr Clinton said.
The closure of workshops and other activities for prisoners had combined with the overcrowding problem to increase tensions in Mountjoy.
"Our argument was and has always been that if you have prisoners standing around all day doing nothing then tensions will rise," Mr Clinton added. "And that's what we have seen with the recent attacks in Mountjoy. We'd be hopeful that they will get back to us in coming days in relation to our proposals."
Mr Clinton said on emerging from talks at the prison service headquarters in Clondalkin, Dublin, that he had learned that Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon, would begin housing two inmates in cells intended to sleep one person. He said this possibility had been raised with his members last week. He was surprised to get confirmation on the same day that the prison service had insisted the prison system was not overcrowded.
A spokesman for the prison service did not return repeated calls from The Irish Times last night.
Yesterday's talks were called following the murder last week of Gary Douch (21), Tallaght, Dublin, in Mountjoy. He was strangled and beaten to death by a fellow inmate with whom he was sharing a holding cell in the basement.
Mr Douch had been placed in the cell for his own protection because he feared for his safety.
His killer, a 23-year-old Dubliner with a history of violence and psychiatric problems, had just been transferred from Cloverhill Prison.
