There has been a dramatic increase in attacks on prison officers and prisoners, with over 1,200 attacks last year, according to the Irish Prison Officers' Association (POA).
The Director of the Prison Service Caron McCaffrey said the service is currently trialling body worn cameras for officers and supports the introduction of incapacitant spray
The POA said attacks by prisoners on prison officers increased by 32% last year, when 145 officers were attacked.
There were also 1,219 prisoner on prisoner and other assaults in the country's jails, an increase of over 30%.
At its annual conference in Galway, graphic images were shown to the delegates of one officer who had his face slashed.
POA General Secretary Karl Dalton said the problem of overcrowding needs to be resolved because it is damaging vocational and educational programmes in the prison.
"Structured activities are needed to keep inmates active and away from drugs", he said, adding that "they’re being thrown in to cells with nothing to do."
He also said prison officers need the full support of gardaí and the full justice system to deter attacks.
Ms McCaffrey said any attack on a prison officer is one too many and that they have a major impact on staff, their colleagues and families.
She said she fully supports the introduction of incapacitant spray for prison officers because it reduces injuries to staff and prisoners.
She also said body worn cameras on prison officers improves inmate behaviour and these cameras are currently being trialled in Portlaoise Prison, to be "rolled out" across all prisons later this year and into next year
Prison Service chief defends temporary release practices
Ms McCaffrey defended the practice of granting temporary release to non-violent prisoners with addiction and mental health issues.
She said there are "a finite number of beds" within the prison system and she has to release people to prevent further overcrowding and to ensure the safety of staff and other inmates.
She also said it is "not true" to say nothing has been done to tackle overcrowding because the Prison Service budget has increased by €130 million in the last four years, 250 more staff have been employed and 300 additional prison spaces have been created.
"It is true to say numbers have increased, and very significantly this year," the director said, "but that is due to the success of An Garda Síochána, the appointment of additional judges and additional court sittings, but we do have a capital plan."
Over 1,000 people sent to jail last year were released within 24 hours, without having spent one day in prison.
The prison service has said 80% of people sent to prison for low level offences are sentenced to 12 months or less, and 70% of those are sentenced to six months or less.
The director insisted they are "not just opening the door and allowing people out".
She said they always consider the victims and the risk to public safety before releasing people but these are people with addictions and mental health problems.
If there was no system of temporary release she said she would have 6,000 inmates, meaning the prisons would be at 130% of capacity, and at those levels she could not ensure the safety of staff or prisoners.
She said people serving between one- and eight-year sentences were "swapping prison for community time" and were on programmes working in the community.
She said the decision to release was based on public safety and insisted that sex offenders, and serious, violent and dangerous criminals were not released.
She pointed out that over 80% prisoners have an active addiction and said they would "go to every end to get drugs", including using drones.
"We do all we can to keep drones out," she said "but drones are a problem faced by prison services all over the world."
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The Prison Service, she said, had previously invested in anti-drone technology but due to rapid advances in technology it became obsolete and the service has reverted to a "back to basics" approach.
It has installed metal netting in Portlaoise Prison and over the D Yard in Mountjoy where the Kinahan Organised Crime Group members are detained, and she said there has been no drone delivery there since.
The director also insists that there are "bespoke windows in all medium- or high-security prisons" which cannot be opened from the inside or out so drones can no longer deliver to individual cells.
Ms McCaffrey also said a situation where the fire alarm was deliberately set off to open vents to enable a drone delivery was "a singular isolated occurrence".
She described it as "a game of cat and mouse" where the Prison Service closes one smuggling route and prisoners open another.
She accepted that there was always a risk of trafficking contraband, including firearms, into prison but said the Prison Service was taking measures to mitigate those risks "as much as we can".
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POA's assault figures disputed
The Prison Service has disputed the POA's assault figures and says attacks in prison are down across all categories.
It says there were 107 prison officers assaulted last year, a reduction of 3%.
It also says prisoner-on-prisoner assaults were down 31%, physical interventions were down 25%, while additional aggressive and threatening incidents dropped last year by 8%.
However, the POA said it is "wholeheartedly standing over the assault figures issued at this years annual conference".
It says its data is obtained locally from representatives on the ground and based on figures directly maintained by local management.
The Prison Service defines a direct physical assault "whereby a prisoner 'intentionally applies force to or intentionally causes an impact to the body of an operational prison staff member".
The POA says Prison Officers have been injured while intervening in disputes between prisoners and that the Prison Service is not counting these as assaults.
