Cork Prison over capacity with 'huge pressure on staff'  

As of yesterday, Cork Prison housed 334 prisoners and was operating at 113% capacity.

As a result, additional shifts had to be worked to maintain the necessary staffing levels, and activities such as workshops for prisoners had to be cancelled.

A Cork Prison officer told The Echo that “staff are being stretched” and are “absolutely exhausted”.

He said they have not been granted more staff, “but they’ve added lots more overtime. You can work there every day if you want”.

He said that, on top of an extra 360 hours a year each officer can work, 65,000 overtime hours have been added nationally to the Prison Service. “I know one lad who did 72 hours overtime in two weeks,” he said.

Pressure

“There’s huge pressure on staff,” he said, adding: “You can be compelled to work more, but compelling is rare with extra overtime”.

When there are not enough officers, this can result in activities for prisoners not running.

“It goes down to affecting prisoners, there’d be workshops closed,” he said, explaining that escorts and security posts must be filled, “so basically there would be no workshops for the prisoners” if there are not enough officers.

The officer said the number of prisoners had gone up to 350 before, in a facility that was built to hold 275. 

"Safety is built on numbers, and everybody is concerned about them. Most prison riots start when the prisons are overcrowded, multiply that with short staffing and it means hassle – the prison’s way of dealing with it is give them overtime and they’ll work.” 

While older and longer serving staff would always take on overtime, he said the new staff "don’t want to it at all, they’ve no interest in doing the overtime."

“The Prison Service is recruiting at the moment, but it’s been slow,” he said, addin that a “common occurrence” at the moment was gardaí leaving the force and coming to work in the prison service instead.

No Control

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service explained that it must accept all prisoners committed by the Court Service.

They told The Echo: “As such, the Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time and for various reasons, including population growth and increased garda, numbers in custody have increased.

“The Irish Prison Service continually monitors staffing requirements and vacancies across the organisation, which arise as a result of multiple factors such as mobility, resignations, promotions and retirements, and recruitment campaigns are launched accordingly.

“The Irish Prison Service is working closely with officials in the Department to take steps to ensure a safe working environment for staff, and the safety and security of people in custody.” 

The spokesperson explained that under Budget 2023, a €6.5m additional package was secured to provide for additional staff recruitment and to support rehabilitation and training and this year, an additional circa €27 million was secured for the Irish Prisons Service budget which includes approximately €9m in staffing to provide for increased pay roll costs, recruitment, and 65,000 additional hours to help with current pressures.

The Irish Prison Service recruited 194 Recruit Prison Officers in 2023, and it is expected that the number recruited in 2024 will be 300, they said, adding “additional hours have been provided pending staff recruitment to maximise service delivery.

“The requirement to support prisons remains under review each quarter to allow for improvements in opening hours and access to services including education services,” the spokesperson concluded.