A sharp rise in the number of attacks on prison officers is down to "crowding" in jails leading to "instability, incidents and violence".
That is according to Justice Minister Naomi Long, who revealed at Stormont this week that prison officers had been assaulted nearly 100 times in 2024.
The number of attacks has trebled in just four years - a figure described as "quite astonishing" by the DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley.
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The Justice Minister released the figures during Minister's question time at the Assembly on Monday, following a question from the Upper Bann MLA.
Naomi Long said there were 32 assaults on staff in 2020, a figure that rose to 71 the following year. In 2022 there were 66 assaults recorded, followed by 59 in 2023 and last year the figure was 96. The Minister said the trebling in the number attacks from 2020 to 2024 is down to the size of the prison population.
Mr Buckley said: "Every attack on a prison officer is beyond comprehension and should be condemned rightly in this place. However, that the number of attacks should treble in four years is quite astonishing."
The Minister said: "The Prison Service's experience is that a higher population and crowding are the most significant factors contributing to prison instability, incidents and violence."
She continued: "To be clear, in 2020, when we had our lowest prisoner numbers during coronavirus >COVID, there were 32 assaults on staff. To compare what happened this year, when we are at our largest ever prison population, with that year is an unjust comparison. For example, if you look back, you see that, last year, the number of assaults was 59 and, the year before, it was 66. It goes up and down each year. However, we know that the size of the prison population will directly impact on the level of volatility in the prisons."
She added: "Every prison officer is trained to deal with conflict, de-escalation and restraint and in ensuring that violence in the prison is contained as quickly as possible. It is important that that is the case because prison can be a volatile place and, therefore, violence can happen. We have recruited additional numbers of prison officers. We continue to do so, and there is no indication that the level of violence in our prisons has been an issue that has in any way deterred people from applying. In fact, when we seek prison officers during a recruitment process, we are normally well oversubscribed."
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