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THE GARDAÍ RECEIVED 166 requests for armed escorts of prisoners from the prison service last year, but only 69 of the requests were granted.
This represents a 59% refusal rate.
Last month dangerous criminal Derek Brockwell escaped from Tallaght Hospital after stabbing two of his prison guards. He had three prison officers with him at the hospital but no armed escort.
Neither the gardaí nor the prison service were willing to state why the requests were refused.
A garda spokesman told TheJournal.ie that it is their policy not to comment on matters relating to prison escorts ‘for security and operations reasons’.
An Irish Prisons official meanwhile told us “these are security matters, private matters; we don’t discuss such matters when it comes to individual prisoners.”
If you want to know why the requests were refused you’ll have to talk to the gardaí since they’re the ones who refused them.
The news regarding the refusals came to light following a parliamentary question in the Dáil tabled by Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins in the wake of Brockwell’s escape.
Collins says it’s ‘another example of cuts in garda resources putting communities at risk’.
Requests for armed escorts are only made when the prison service believes that a convicted criminal is dangerous enough to attempt an escape or to pose a very serious threat to public safety.
“This is clearly a resources issue,” says Collins.
We cannot allow a situation where dangerous criminals can run free because the resources aren’t there for secure transportation.
The impact of the drastic cuts to garda resources and the decimation of support for our gardaí is being seen in communities across the country with spikes in crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour.
Now we are seeing a serious impact on security around the transport of violent criminals.
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The Gardai refusals I would think have as much to do with the resources they are allocated (ie: available armed Gardai on a given day due to lack of overtime payments) as anything else. But that will never be admitted because it would make the Minister and Government look bad.
Why not do away with the need for armed Gardai. Instead of bringing the prisoners to the hospital, have a doctor and nurse visit each prison once a week. Or have them stationed there permanently, it would be cheaper that transporting them.
The Garda do a good job with limited resources , only for the brave women and men in the Garda the streets would be in anarchy.
We need more of them though
Suzi. That again comes down to finances. As we. Have heard fro the AGSI conference last week the Government are trying to bring in what amounts to “Yellow Pack” Gardai by giving more powers to the Garda Reserve. Similarly they are doing the same in the Prison Service with PASO Grade Officers who are not trained to deal with Prisoners directly.
Mick , I agree , I pity those prison officers and security guards , it’s their lives that are being put at risk .
Hate to agree with Niall Collins – he obviously has a political agenda of knocking present government- but it is quite obvious that this issue comes down to resources/man power. There aren’t enough Gardai so how could there be enough armed Gardai? The second issue here is that these decisions are taken by a Garda desk jockey – probably an Inspector/Superintendent – and a Prison Service desk jockey – neither with a single thought whatsoever for the safety of the Prison Officers. These agencies have an obligation to their employees under the Safety Health & Welfare at work act but surprise surprise – no one to take responsibility for making the decisions and no will to do anything about it. Authorities in both agencies will try to throw a lowly operative under the bus to deflect the blame from the decision makers because we all know that there is no accountability for anyone other than the bottom rungs. Sh*t rolls downhill.
The gardai are too busy collecting tax… I mean, protecting us from bad drivers.
This is a question about the availability of ARMED Gardaí, plain clothes Gardaí.
Traffic Corps etc who deal with Roads/ give out fines etc are not armed or in plain clothes.
And who makes the decision to have so few armed gardai when obviously more are needed? The politicians who are more interested in making the gardai a force for tax collection than a force for protection.
I know perfectly well traffic corps are not the ones who handle this type of requests.
That’s a big army with guns doing nothing but carrying cash around for banks.
They don’t even do that anymore.
Yeah, too busy with deploying overseas to the Middle East and Africa to be worrying about CIT
They do prisoner escorts when requested and subject to certain conditions
Why can’t the prison service have its own in house armed VIP prisoner unit, no messing around ringing/emailing/requesting army/gardai, we bloody love making stuff complicated in this country, send 50 good prison officers to templemore for 2 weeks or whatever and let them do refresher training with eru every 6/12 months as required, problem solved,
Perhaps it is time to arm the prison warders…..It is after all their lives at risk to protect the general public.This almost cap in hand approach to security is shameful. If they request security it would be based on the risk they assess and that should trump any objection /refusal by the Gardai.
This has been high lighed by FF , wht ? are responsible for the state of the public finances or not, I’m confused. …..?
Gardai didn’t refuse to take the jobs. Their bosses refused. Big question need asking. When they don’t refuse gardai being used as security for iw but refuse to escort dangerous criminals. They also sent out how many to arrest a TD a 14 year old and a 16 year old. Do not blame gardai they only go where told to go.
Sounds like a “pass the book” job by the prison service to me…..
Maybe you need to manage the requests better. Maybe send 2 prisoners each time with armed guards and the number of refusals virtually eliminates its self
How about the prison service has a specially trained armed unit for transporting prisoners
Connor. That would work if (and it’s a big IF) both escorts were going to the same place at the same time. Unfortunately that is an extremely rare occurance.
Escorting prisoners is not a military task, the task is purely a tasķ of the dept of justce and is primarily a PO job, this is sheer laziness on the part of prison management and the PO association and it should be tackled under H&S. The army has its own tasks to perform and has only recently got rid of cash escorts. POs should have all the legislation and equip to perform this task safely even if it means a prisoner who is assessed as dangerous has his rights infringed( let the whingers whinge ). It would be fairly easy to enable legislation to enable POs to carry firearms for self protection (no power of arrest needed) when deemed necessarry however I doubt it will happen because of vested interests and restrictive work practices. Leave the military authorities out of it unless there is some kind of national emergency.
What does the army do in this country. Surely tasks such as prisoner transport would be ideal ??
A few guys and girls I know in the FCA would be only to happy to give them an armed escort.
In this day and age all Gardai should be armed and provisions for certain security workers to be armed as well. The insistence that only Gardai should be allowed carry out these functions and then not give them sufficient resources to actually do the job is a recipe for disaster.
Armed guards for handcuffed prisoners… three prison officers v one prisoner I would have thought it was an easy job. Armed guards would not have opened fire on an unarmed runner. Are they saying if they had two more prison officers instead he wouldn’t have got away.
HRH. The Armed Gardai are there in case the prisoner has armed accomplice’s waiting to assist in an escape.
And in the Brockwell case would he have used a knife in the presence of an Armed Garda?
What knife?
With knife guards wouldn’t shoot him. To P.C media would hang them out to dry, look at the fuss they made about shooting an armed man in Abbeylara. And by the way they were right to do that.
Prison transfer guards should be armed. It is a brainer.
I once had an unarmed escort, mad craic! She didn’t have an legs either.
Gar
That will be illegal in June… Why armed escorts lol.
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