The director-general of the Irish Prisons Service has warned staff that rising overtime costs represent a crisis which must be addressed.
In a recent letter to all staff, and seen by The Irish Times, Mr Sean Aylward said the cost of running the prison system was "grossly out of line" with all international comparisons.
"If the present escalating trend is not seriously corrected then the outturn figure for overtime for the year 2001 will seriously exceed last year's figure of £38.6 million. This represents a major crisis for the prison service which must be addressed," he said. It is estimated that the overtime bill for 2001 could run to £50 million.
Mr Aylward distributed the letter along with a report of an internal review of staffing in the State's 17 prisons. The report, by the Prisons Service Staffing and Operations Review Team, found an "overtime culture" has hindered more positive developments and must be addressed.
"The elimination of overtime will require increased efficiency in the operation of our penal institutions and alternative methods of dealing with peaks and troughs in staffing requirements," it said.
The report was published internally last February and distributed to all staff by Mr Aylward in April, ahead of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) annual conference.
The review was conducted as part of a strategic effectiveness programme aimed at eliminating long-term dependence on overtime. It makes recommendations for changes to allow the service to be run without such dependence. The Prison Service is negotiating with staff representatives and hopes to phase out overtime over an 18-month period.
The POA has agreed there is a problem with overtime, but has warned that its elimination would come at a price in terms of compensation to staff.
Regarding prison conditions the report found "limited availability" of productive activities for prisoners. "It would appear that, while the majority of prisoners are `assigned' to an activity, the reality is that many spend most of their unlocked periods at unstructured recreation, effectively idle, which can give rise to unrest, behavioural problems and undesirable practices," it said.
It also found that classrooms and teacher facilities were less than adequate in some institutions and recommended an assessment of the effectiveness of current education arrangements. The report also made extensive recommendations on improving the design and conditions of prisons, including improved catering standards and better exercise yards and showers.
Dr Valerie Bresnihan, of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said the report was a step forward "but is a damning indictment of the cost efficiency situation and also of standards".
She questioned recent staff increases for a prison service which, she said, already had the highest officer-prisoner ratio in Europe, at a time when the crime rate was falling. If the Government really wanted to create efficiency it should fund more retraining of staff and raise the conditions of prison life, which would benefit both prison officers and prisoners, she added.