Mr. Michael Donnellan:

There is no doubt that the role of the prison officer is very difficult. Prison officers interact day in and day out with people who are chaotic and need help and support. We have a training college where we train all prison staff. We have a number of courses which prison staff can attend. Recently, we developed a mental health course for staff, which is really effective because it begins to help staff to get an insight into people's mental health problems and know the signs to look out for. Suicide is an issue in prison and very traumatising. We have a range of supports in place. We also have a staff support system under which we have staff support officers available to whom staff can go for help or to get advice. We provide a counselling service, have an employee assistance programme and a freefone number which prison officers can ring 24/7 if they go home from work and have experienced something really difficult.

The Senator is correct - prison can be chaotic because one has a range of people with different needs and from different backgrounds. The majority have come from highly traumatised backgrounds with early childhood problems that play out in the prison environment. For many prisoners drugs offer pain relief and they do not care what they take. They take it to soften the damage caused by their pain. It is about getting through that barrier with them and supporting staff. As the Senator said, it is a very difficult environment.