A spokesperson for Castlerea Prison has responded to allegations by Fine Gale councillor Brian Walsh, regarding the recent escape of a prisoner from University Hospital Galway.
Last week, Cllr Walsh criticised Castlerea Prison officers after a prisoner, who was brought to University Hospital Galway to undergo a medical procedure, escaped and went on the run, before being caught by gardaí and brought back to prison.
Cllr Walsh accused the prison officers of seeking a temporary release for the prisoner, alleging they would not work overtime owing to the ‘work to rule’ strike among public servants.
However a spokesperson for Castlerea Prison has rebutted Cllr Walsh’s allegations, saying “Prisoner officers did not refuse to work overtime” as “no such work to rule is in place or has ever been in place in Castlerea Prison”.
“Prison officers do not work overtime since the Proposal for Organisational Change in the Irish Prison Service negotiated in July 2005,” said the spokesperson. “Under this system, officers are obliged and undertake to fulfil all duties such as escorts, etc. This is to ensure that vulnerable people in a hospital would not be exposed to what occurred on Thursday April 29 within Galway University Hospital.”
The spokesperson also said that “no prison officer has or will ever have the power to seek a temporary release of a prisoner” as this can only be done “at a high Irish Prison Service level, that which is afforded to those in esteemed positions within the Department of Justice.”
The spokesperson also said the prisoner did not have a two man escort as was alleged.
“There was in fact a three man escort, a courtesy afforded to offenders of a high risk status which he was adjudged to be by Castlerea staff and management, a status obviously not agreed with by those who deemed him a candidate for temporary release.”
The spokesperson concluded by saying: “We at Castlerea Prison wish to point out these untruths as we believe if they had remained unchallenged and uncorrected the people of Galway would think negatively of prison officers who carry out their jobs in a most professional manner.”
