Prison officers at Mountjoy Prison have decided to ballot for industrial action in an escalation of their dispute with the Irish Prison Service over staffing levels at the Dublin jail.
Members of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) met for talks at the north Dublin prison earlier today and decided to take a ballot on industrial action.
The precise detail of the POA's plan has not yet been announced but it is believed to include options up to and including striking.
The officers' row with the prison service escalated last Tuesday when most staff at the prison abandoned their posts while the jail's near 700 inmates were locked into their cells eating lunch.
A skeletal staff was left to guard the inmates before the protesting officers resumed working after a four-hour walk-out.
The prison officers were protesting over the transfer of violent criminal Leroy Dumbrell into Mountjoy's separation unit, which is intended to house inmates in need of protection from others in the jail.
The POA says the separation unit, which houses up to 60 inmates, does not have sufficient staff to deal with dangerous prisoners.
The association believes violent inmates are increasingly being moved into the separation unit because space is at a premium in the main prison. The POA wants staffing levels increased if dangerous criminals are to remain in the unit.
The prison service has claimed Leroy Dumbrell is not a disruptive inmate.
Rather, they say he is being housed in the separation unit because he is at risk of attack from other inmates.
Dumbrell (24), Emmet Rd, Inchicore, Dublin, is in prison serving two sentences for separate violent attacks. In one incident he beat a man so badly the victim lost the sight in his eye.
In another attack Dumbrell and two others attacked a disabled woman and mentally impaired man.
They beat and scalded the man before setting the woman on fire using lighter fuel and then pouring boiling water over her to extinguish the flames.
Dumbrell is regarded as the leader of a prison gang in Mountjoy. In February he was transferred out of Mountjoy and was kept in solitary confinement in Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon.
He was transferred because he had repeatedly been involved in violent incidents in Mountjoy and was one of the leaders of a disturbance involving up to 50 inmates that broke out last December.
However, earlier this month he won a High Court challenge to his continued detention in solitary confinement. The prison service were obliged to make alternative arrangements for him and last Tuesday transferred him into the Mountjoy separation unit, prompting the staff walk.
Prison officers believe Dumbrell's transfer to the separation is completely inappropriate. Some sources said most of the inmates in the separation unit had been transferred there precisely to keep them safe from attack by prisoners like Dumbre.
Talks on the issue scheduled for last Friday morning between the POA, prison service and new Mountjoy governor Ned Whelan were called off by the prison service after the POA refused to rule out taking industrial action if it was not satisfied with the outcome of the planned discussions.
