Prison officers seizing phones often 'assaulted'

Prison officers seize hundreds of mobile phones from inmates every year but they are regularly spat at, assaulted, bitten and threatened when they seize such contraband material, the head of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) said yesterday.

Speaking on the eve of the association's annual conference, which will be addressed by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in Sligo today, POA president Gabriel Keaveny said members who work in difficult circumstances were getting very little back-up from management.

"A prisoner will not readily hand over a phone or drugs, and officers who try to take them are regularly bitten, threatened, spat at or assaulted," he said. "A prisoner with drugs, if he is an addict, will fight viciously to keep them."

As controversy continues about the mobile phone call made by John Daly an inmate at Portlaoise prison to RTE's Liveline this week, Mr Keaveny said POA members felt they were getting very little support in combating the problem.

"How many people have you seen brought before the courts for smuggling contraband material into prisons, despite the thousands of seizures every year?" he asked. "I don't know of any."

He added that despite "a major announcement" last year about the introduction of drug detector dogs, "we still have only one dog for the entire prison system".

Asked about suggestions that prison staff might be complicit in getting phones or DVDs into prisons, Mr Keaveny said some governors give inmates permission to have DVD players or PlayStation 2 consoles, which can play DVDs.

He also said prison overcrowding remained a huge issue almost a year after Gary Douch was killed in a holding cell he was sharing with six other inmates in Mountjoy Prison.

Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent adds:

The mobile phone and SIM card were seized from the prisoner, John Daly, as he was on air contributing to Joe Duffy's Liveline programme on Tuesday from Portlaoise Prison. Daly, who is nearing the end of a nine-year sentence for armed robbery, has since been transferred to Cork Prison and the forfeiture of his remission is under consideration.

Mr McDowell said it was a "brazen and deliberate" breach of security and one that may carry a sanction of more than the 14-day loss of remission for minor offences.