POA CONFERENCE:THE PRISON Officers' Association has strongly criticised overcrowding in prisons and maintained it is the issue that causes most problems for its members and the most risk for prisoners.
At the start of its annual delegate conference in Kilkenny, the association's president, Jim Mitchell, said Cork Prison had double the number of prisoners it should have.
"This is totally unacceptable and creates risks for all the parties involved", he said.
Mr Mitchell also maintained there was serious overcrowding in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.
He said bed capacity in Mountjoy was constantly changing as prison service management "continue to play around with the figures".
Mr Mitchell said overcrowding created competition for limited resources, higher suicide rates, aggression between inmates and higher rates of illness.
He said it also provided "a virtual training ground for bullying and victimisation of vulnerable prisoners".
"We speak in terms of rehabilitation for the prison population, but if we are to be really serious about rehabilitation, we should house prisoners in 21st- and not 19th-century conditions", Mr Mitchell said.
