PRISON officers are threatening to refuse to handle prisoners sent by the courts to overcrowded jails.
A ballot, expected to approve the proposals, would allow officers in individual jails to take industrial action, including a strike, if they felt an excessive number of prisoners was arriving.
The ballot organised by the Prison Officers' Association (POA), stems from a row over a Department of Justice plan to add 95 prisoners to the current population of about 2,300. The Department plans to "double up" prisoners in cells, "creating" 48 extra spaces in Wheatfield Prison in Dublin, 25 in Castelrea, Co Roscommon, and 32 at the Curragh.
The POA says the move endangers its members and was implemented without consultation.
The ballot, expected to be completed in two weeks, is intended to allow local prison officer branches to serve notice of industrial action on a governor as an immediate response to any significant increase in prisoner numbers.
The POA wants a maximum number of prisoners to be established for each jail, according to a letter sent to the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, last week by the POA general secretary, Mr Denis McGrath.
He said the current policy of the Department "will increase the likelihood of further criminal behaviour of offenders".
"The detaining of offenders without making even a basic effort to rehabilitate them is counterproductive," Mr McGrath said.
He argued that offenders in overcrowded conditions "will become more difficult, not only for prison staff on the front line but to society in general."
The POA says the Department should find new accommodation, for example by converting old buildings into prisons.