asked the Minister for Justice if he will confirm that it was on his instructions that the Governor of Mountjoy Prison reduced the ratio of prison officers per prisoner on escort duty, from Wednesday, 2 November, and detailed two prison officers to accompany four offenders to Dublin District Court on that day; the reason the Governor was not involved in the subsequent implementations of the Minister's directive, and the reason the Governor was not present in Mountjoy Prison on 3, 4 and 5 November 1983.
Written Answers. - Prison Officer-Prisoner Ratio.
364.
Limerick East): The Deputy has obviously been given a very partial account of the facts relating to the manning of escorts and I propose to give a brief account here to correct the picture.
First the background. The provision of prison officers for escort duty is very expensive. It has been costing in the region of £1.5 million a year in overtime payments alone. Financial constraints and the need for efficiency suggested that the system ought to be reviewed. I found that it had been agreed that an escort was to consist of one officer per prisoner plus one extra officer. This was not, however a rule that was meant to be or indeed that was capable of being rigorously adhered to, for a number of reasons. One reason is that an escort is sent to all sittings of the Circuit Court when criminal cases are being heard, but frequently, the main reason is not to bring prisoners to the court but to take prisoners from the court to the prison and there can be no certainty as to how many prisoners may be committed or, indeed in some cases, if any at all will be. Another reason is that sometimes there are literally not enough prison officers available for the duty — even on the basis of being recalled from their rest day.
I considered that it would be more consonant with practice in many cases and more consonant with the reality of the situation, which includes the fact that many prisoners can be trusted not to give any difficulty irrespective of the size of the escort, if the practice was amended to give governors a discretion in all cases as to the number of escorting officers. My decision was conveyed to governors in a circular dated 11 October 1983, a copy of which will be circulated with the Official Report. The Prison Officers' Association protested at my decision and the consequence was the recent industrial action in Mountjoy Prison, following which an agreement has been reached between myself and the association on a number of issues, of which the manning level of escorts is only one. A revised circular on that subject is about to issue. It spells out something that was implicit in the October circular, namely, that, in exercising his discretion, the governor will have regard to the need for a larger escort when a prisoner known to be violent or prone to escape is concerned.
I now come to the events of 2 November. The Acting Governor determined the size of escorts for the following day for the Central Criminal Court and the Dublin Circuit Court. This involved a cutback on the number provisionally determined by a more junior officer. The Acting Governor fixed the number at two Assistant Chief Officers and nine officers in all. As it so happened, those escorts proved to be considerably more than adequate for the number of prisoners dealt with on 3 November. The escort for the Dublin District Court for 3 November was also determined on 2 November, at two officers for three prisoners: this was increased to four prisoners next morning. The ratio of officers to prisoners was not unusual for a District Court escort (where Garda assistance is also available). Staff protests were made, however, probably (but subject to the findings of the inquiry I propose to have made into certain events during that week) because the decision of the Acting Governor in relation to the level of escorts for the higher courts meant that four officers who had expected to be called in from their rest days to work overtime on those escorts were not, in fact, recalled.
The Governor of Mountjoy Prison intimated on 28 October that he proposed to take leave until 11 November. He returned briefly to the prison on 6 and 7 November and then resumed leave.
Following is the circular letter referred to:
To Each Governor,
At recent discussions at the Department on the question of overtime working in the prisons and places of detention involving Governors and Department officials, there was general agreement that a significant contributory factor in high overtime levels in the Prison Service was the level of escorts of prisoners to Courts, hospitals etc., Manning levels of one officer per prisoner plus one officer are sometimes unnecessary and wasteful of manpower. For the future, therefore, discretion should be exercised as to the appropriate manning levels for each escort. Decisions on the manning levels should depend on the type of prisoner(s) and other relevant considerations.
11 October, 1983