Prison officers have called for access to prisoners' medical files and mandatory blood tests for prisoners if they are attacked with syringes. The POA's vice-president, Mr Derek Murphy, said there was a need for a policy on violence in prisons. Potentially violent prisoners needed to be identified and housed in segregation areas. "The initial regime for incoming prisoners should be strict so that through good behaviour they will earn their privileges." Mr Murphy recommended a 24hour lock-up for violent prisoners and an automatic loss of two months' privileges as a sanction for acts of violence.
Mr Murphy told the conference that there had been 40 prisoner deaths between 1990 and 1997. However, he added that although the number of committals had risen from 6,407 in 1991 to 11,620 last year, the number of deaths had not increased.
In 1991 there were five deaths in custody. Last year there were six, including the deaths by natural causes of convicted murderer Brendan O'Donnell and paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Almost half of the deaths since 1991 were by hanging, a further nine from drug overdoses, and the remainder were prisoners who cut their own throats or died of natural causes.
Every prison officer was affected by a suicide or self-mutilation, Mr Murphy said. "Suicides and attempted suicides are an area which our members have to live with, and it is only by continued awareness that we can hope to reduce the number of suicides in our prisons."
