POA agm : call for end to dissident parades
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Friday May 01, 2009 16:29
by Harvey Duff
Leaders of the Prison Officers Association (POA) whose annual general meeting is being held in Castlebar , Co Mayo this week have called for a crackdown on the activities of dissident paramilitary prisoners held in Portlaoise Prison .
At a time when the prison service faces an acute shortage of staff and cell space , 48 Continuity IRA, Real IRA and INLA inmates are currently allocated 120 cells at Portlaoise on four landings . Inmates can order in special food like steak to be cooked for them in the jail .
The POA is particularly concerned about subversives holding military parades in the jail and has urged the Minister of Justice to intervene to stop them . But Prison Service boss , Brian Purcell , has rejected the union’s complaint saying that republican prisoners have always been treated differently to ordinary criminals .
see:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0501/prison.html
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3The POA’s agm concluded on Friday with further revelations about condition for members in Portlaoise prison . Subversive prisoners have painted “huge murals” on walls within the jail according to the trade union’s deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy . Mr Denehy also revealed that subversive prisoners are not subject to search by sniffer dogs in the jail .
A spokesman for Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said the claims by the POA were "outlandish" and hinted to Irish Times reporters that the POA demands might be motivated by recent changes in work practices in Portlaoise which may have affected prison officers’ overtime payments.
Mr Dennehy however stressed that the double standards shown towards dissidents were of genuine concern to his members many of whom are alarmed at dissident subversive groups parading in the jail . He told reporters on Friday , “These are very serious matters and that’s why we’re calling on the Minister to get involved”.
Mayday solidarity greetings to the conference in Castlebar from the Prison Officers Association in Britain were read out on Friday . Its national chair Colin Moses warned of the increasingly liberal approach that was disempowering over-worked officers at jails throughout these islands .
Just a brief update for indymedia Ireland readers on events since the AGM.
As people can probably imagine , a lot of the lads have been despondent since the Fianna Fail government's decision to shelve the Thornton Hall project without a single block for the new prison being laid . At the same time as huge sums were being wasted on consultancy fees for the project , officers were subjected to vicious cutbacks in work conditions which saw overtime payments reduced by as much as twenty per cent .
In a sign of the growing anger felt by officers across the country over conditions in the industry , some of the Portlaoise lads gave up their lunch breaks yesterday to stage an unofficial protest .
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/officers-stage-....html
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