The practice of prison officers earning excessive overtime is "a cancer in the system, stifling creativity and innovation", the head of the new independent Prison Authority has said.
Outlining his priorities as the first incumbent of the post, Mr Sean Aylward said he would be seeking to cut the service's growing overtime bill - it was £34 million last year or almost a fifth of this year's overall prison budget - as well as encourage more flexibility among officers.
He also stressed the need to tackle the State's high recidivism rate of 70 per cent, growing to 90 per cent in some institutions, by investing more resources in psychological, drug-treatment and after-care services.
"Our prison overtime is out of line with the rest of the world," said Mr Aylward. "We are haemorrhaging money.
"In five years time, I want to see a deeply professional prison service, not driven by the overtime culture but very much involved in rehabilitation and retraining of prisoners."
That required a change in the role of the prison officer from someone who predominantly "minded gates" to "a man with a clipboard, attending meetings, talking about his clients and their programme".
Just over three weeks in the post, Mr Aylward (43), a civil servant, held his first meeting last week with the authority's interim board, charged with overseeing the transition of control of the prison service from the Department of Justice. Executive responsibility for the management of the prisons has been handed over to Mr Aylward, although absolute independence will not come until the introduction of legislation, due within six months.
Having worked as assistant secretary at the department, and principal officer in its prisons section, he is aware of the problems facing the service. Most of the prison stock is over 10 years old and overcrowding is endemic.
Last Thursday, there were 3,149 people in custody in the State's 16 penal institutions, containing a total of 2,798 beds. The following day, the number of people in custody fell to 2,781 but still 70 prisoners spent the night on overflow mattresses in Mountjoy and 24 in St Patrick's.
The poor conditions, said Mr Aylward, make it "degrading to be a prisoner and equally degrading to be an officer".
While the current prison building and refurbishment programme, to which more than £30 million has been allocated this year, was welcome, it would only deal with immediate needs.
"If we want a humane prison system we've got to be prepared to spend money on it - big bucks."
He said one area which required attention was psychological services. While the number of prison psychologists had more than doubled to seven in the past three years, it remained insignificant compared to the prison population.
However "that doesn't mean we should have a psychologist for every prisoner," he said. Rather, prison officers, of which there were almost 3,000, should be encouraged to diversify into counselling and support roles, which many already did informally.
One initiative which he hoped to develop was the establishment of a system of contracts, administered by officers, setting out prisoners' rights and responsibilities. There was "very little assessment of prisoners' needs" and many offenders just "sleepwalk" through their sentences without being challenged to reflect on their circumstances.
"It's true that a lot of prisoners come from tragic backgrounds but if we don't give them a sense of personal responsibility for their own future actions we are actually fostering a victim culture among offenders which is not going to be helpful to the general public."
He stressed the need for more treatment options for sex offenders who now account for one-eighth of the prison population. At present, Arbour Hill is the only institution where group therapy is available.
However, he said the prison system could not be expected to cure offenders, whether they were paedophiles or drug addicts. "One has to remember that before we get to see these people they have already run the gamut of intervention, all of which has failed."
Welcoming the Probation and Welfare Service's report published last week, he said it was proven to be easier to treat people outside of prison. Giving custodial sentences to petty offenders was "very wasteful".
"Instead of being a short, sharp shock, it actually teaches them to believe they can hack it."
Those who rejected such reforms as "mollycoddling" were short-sighted. "I would have been as right-wing as anybody about crime and punishment until I got exposed to the reality of the prison system. Having a flushed toilet or being able to shower once a day isn't a luxury. It's just civilisation."