100 attacks yearly as ‘sheer violence’ inflicted on unprotected prison officers

“The nature of these assaults included concussion, lacerations, cuts, fractures, burns and bites,” said POA general secretary John Clinton.

“Most of these injuries were to the head and face, thereby leaving a permanent reminder to the injured officer of the incident.”

He said that, in a survey of prison officers, 78% of respondents said they had been physically assaulted by prisoners at some stage.

Mr Clinton said that the absence of protection measures such as batons, incapacitating spray and body cameras, “undermined staff confidence”.

The Oireachtas justice committee was continuing its hearings on penal reform.

POA deputy general secretary Jim Mitchell said that even though the sick leave scheme had been extended, officers were having to return to work without being able to perform their full duties, and some were being forced to retire.

He said the injuries were persisting because of the “sheer violence” used.

Mr Clinton said the decision by the Irish Prison Service to close the Training Unit, a semi-open centre attached to Mountjoy Prison, was a “retrograde step” and a matter of “immense concern”.

The unit is being redeveloped as a prison for older prisoners.

Earlier, Eoin Carroll of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice told the committee that the number of young adults imprisoned should be “significantly reduced”.

He said: “Politically if we wished to be a European leader in having a low young adult prison population this would require a 50% reduction in prison places.

“Much of this could be achieved through an expansion of the Garda Youth Diversion Programme.”

He said young adults aged 18-24 who are imprisoned should be treated as a separate group and that there should be dedicated facilities for them.

He was also concerned at the “dramatic increase” in the number of women being sent to prison and called for step-down facilities for females leaving prison.