The number of assaults on prison officers by inmates in the country’s jails increased by 30% last year, according to new figures released by the Irish Prison Service.
However, the latest figures also show the total number of assaults by prisoners on fellow inmates across the country’s 13 prisons during 2021 was effectively unchanged and at their lowest level in the past decade.
Overall, a total of 91 physical attacks on prison staff by prisoners were recorded last year – an increase of 21 on 2020 figures but still the joint second lowest annual total since 2012.
The most number of assaults in an individual prison were 15 – recorded in both Mountjoy and Limerick.
While the figure was the lowest annual total in the past decade for Mountjoy, where the annual number of assaults on prison officers peaked in 2013 with 34, it represented almost a two-fold increase in attacks on prison staff at Limerick compared to 2020, when just eight incidents were recorded.
A total of 14 assaults were recorded in two other prisons – Cloverhill and the Dóchas Centre – the female prison attached to the Mountjoy campus.
No assaults on prison staff were recorded in three prisons – Arbour Hill, Portlaoise and Shelton Abbey.
One of the State’s two open prisons – Loughan House near Blacklion, Co Cavan – recorded its first assault on prison officers in a decade last year when two staff suffered physical attacks.
Two prison officers were also assaulted during 2021 while on prisoner escort duty.
The number of assaults on prison staff across the network of prisons had been rising annually on a continuous basis from 91 in 2015 to 123 in 2019.
However, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic which saw prisoners being locked up in their cells for long periods of time to combat the spread of the virus, resulted in a reduced incidence in attacks on prison officers in the past two years.
The IPS also revealed there were 61 cases of “restraint interventions” last year where prison officers may have been injured in the course of restraining non-compliant prisoners.
Wheatfield Prison in Dublin accounted for over a third of the total with 21 cases, while 12 incidents involved staff on prison escort duty.
The IPS said it had received 115 applications for leave for “occupational injury on duty”, of which 110 were granted.
The latest figures showed a total of 6,493 absence days were recorded by staff injured at work in 2021 – an annual increase of almost 4%.
The IPS said the average length of time spent off work by staff who had been assaulted in the line of duty in 2020 – the latest year for which figures are available – was 52 days.
The IPS said any violence against a prison officer was “unacceptable” and all such incidents should be reported to gardaí for investigation and prosecution.
It pointed out that Section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 provided for the specific offence of assaulting or threatening peace officers, including prison officers, acting in the execution of their duty.
The offence carries a maximum jail term of seven years if convicted on indictment.
The IPS said all staff injured while on duty had access to the service’s Employee Assistance Programme as well as an independent counselling service which operated as a 24-hour freephone helpline.
The latest figures also show a total of 249 attacks by prisoners on other inmates were recorded in Irish prisons last year – one less incident than in 2020 and the smallest annual total in the past decade.
The largest number of incidents occurred in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise where 57 assaults on prisoners took place – almost double the 2020 total – followed by Cork (46) and Castlerea (45).
In Mountjoy where the annual total of assaults on prisoners was in excess of 100 for most years since 2012, just 14 incidents were recorded last year.
No incidents of assaults on prisoners were recorded in three prisons – Arbour Hill, Loughan House and Portlaoise.
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