The Prison Service has said it has no plans to change its policy on drugs in prisons following protests by inmates in Dublin and Cork against anti-smuggling controls.
A spokesman said "screened visits", against which three remand prisoners at Clover Hill, Dublin, held a rooftop protest yesterday, were a very effective measure in controlling the supply of drugs into prisons.
The three men escaped from their cell during the night, cutting through the bars of a cell window with a hacksaw blade one of them had smuggled into the remand prison.
It is understood they disguised their escape for a a few hours by placing pillows and blankets in their beds and covering the window with a towel, before prison officers raised the alarm at 7.30 a.m. By then the three had barricaded themselves on to the roof of the prison.
They claimed to be protesting against the ban on physical contact between inmates and visitors which operated at the two-year-old remand prison. Gardai were called as back-up for prison officers but were not needed. The three were persuaded to return to their cell at about 10.30 a.m.
The Prison Service spokesman said the practice of keeping inmates and visitors behind screens applied in most prisons in the State, although not always to the same extent. Clover Hill has a reverse policy to that which applies in Mountjoy Prison, where screened visits occur only in high-risk cases.
The spokesman said they were less likely to be used with prisoners who were well known to the officers than with remand prisoners about whom they wouldn't have as much information.
He noted controls could be relaxed for prisoners in special circumstances, such as in the case of a family bereavement. "A lot of family members say they want us to keep the screens to stop drugs getting in," he added.
No concessions had been made to the three prisoners who protested, he said.
