It’s not mesh use
Drones fly drugs to inmates...after snow pulls down net over jail yard
FEARS have been raised that drugs are flowing into one of the country’s biggest jails after a net to keep them out was destroyed last month.
It has emerged that the meshing over the yard in Mountjoy Prison fell down in snowy weather in early March and is yet to be replaced.
In the meantime daring criminals have been able to move contraband easily over the wall – including in a well publicised incident in late March in which a drone was flown over the yard and dropped drugs inside.
Prison officers are now alarmed at how easy it is to get contraband into the yard and are particularly concerned about the use of drones.
The issue is set to be one of many raised at this year’s conference of the Prison Officers Association in Sligo today.
Prison bosses are understood to be trying to have the net replaced by next week, but there is outrage among staff over the issue, which has gone on now for over a month.
Meanwhile, the issue of overcrowding is set to be raised at the conference, with the POA stating that over 1,000 additional prisoners are now in the prison system since 2019, calling it a “disgrace”.
POA president Tony Power said: “Today the number of prisoners in custody is about to reach a staggering 5,000.
“That is an incredible 25% increase on the figure of five years ago. And needless to say, there has not been a commensurate increase in prison spaces to deal with this explosion in numbers.
“It’s very clear that our attempts to highlight this issue continually fall on deaf ears, and despite the promises on real extra spaces made here year on year by successive Ministers – nothing happens – nothing. And this is a disgrace, let’s just call it what it is.
“In February 2022, during Covid, the Bed Capacity of the Irish Prison Service was 4,471 with 4,182 in custody.
“Up to March of this year the 2022 capacity had increased by a mere 43 to 4,514 while the number in custody had increased by a staggering 763 inmates.
“So, we are now being asked to house hundreds of additional prisoners into 43 additional spaces.”