Mountjoy jail riots

Four prison officers were hurt after inmates armed with chisels and planks of wood took over part of Mountjoy jail yesterday.
A group of 30 prisoners barricaded themselves into a recreation room on the D wing in the jail at 4.10pm, using a snooker table and other prison furniture as a barrier. Inmates then broke into workshops used for carpentry and metalwork, arming themslves with chisels, hammers and planks of wood. Prison officers originally tried to isolate the prisoners one by one, but governer John Lonergan stopped this and attempted to negotiate with them instead. Prisoners using contraband mobile phones sent text messages to aquaintances outside the jail claiming to have hostages, but the claims proved false. A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Officers’ Association said inmates threw snooker balls and tables at staff during the three-hour stand-off. “About 70 prisoners barricaded themselves into a recreation room,” he said. “We were not able to talk them out.” The Control and Restraint Unit, a group of prison officers specially trained to deal with riot-type situations, stormed the room at around 7pm, by which time at least 50 men were blockaded inside. It is thought, however, that some of the men in the recreation room had nothing to do with the stand-off, and were caught unawares when events unfolded. Gardai were on stand-by outside the prison during the stand-off, and the force’s Air Support Unit was called into action. The rest of the prison was put on “lockdown” while the stand-off continued. The men were all back in their cells 20 minutes after the special unit took control and the entire prison was on “lockdown” last night. Four prison officers were hurt in the siege, but their injuries, including broken teeth, were not said to be life-threatening. Three prisoners were hurt.
There was no clear leader during yesterday’s event, which was thought to have been a protest by prisoners either about over-crowded conditions or about tougher security measures which have been put in place to stop the smuggling of drugs. Gardai are now treating the area as a crime scene. A spokeman for the Irish Prison Service said: “There is very good CCTV coverage in the prison, so gardai will be examining footage.” Eleven years ago six Mountjoy inmates took five prison officers hostage using blood-filled syringes. The prison siege lasted for 53 hours, and it resulted in an additional ten-year prison sentence for convicted murderer Warren Dumbrell.