Dr. Joe Garrihy:

Very briefly, that is an issue that does not get enough attention at all. I spent four years researching prison officers in Ireland. This is something I said when the framework for the Office of the Inspector of Prisons was being drawn up a number of years ago, but we get a lot of statistics on assaults by people in prison on each other and on staff but there are never any statistics on staff assaults on people in prison. There is very little in the way of oversight or sanctions. The default option appears to be to delay increments and hit people in the pocket, as officers call it. What disciplinary measures have been taken is something that needs to be addressed but also needs to be laid out in annual reports and so on. That is not just for abuse of people in prison but for officers sanctioned for being drunk on duty, late, absent for months on end and all these things that do not get any scrutiny whatsoever.