Department of Justice paper said prison officers should be armed with pepper spray but warned its use could raise tensions and cause some offenders to become more violent – TheStory.ie

Department of Justice paper said prison officers should be armed with pepper spray but warned its use could raise tensions and cause some offenders to become more violent – TheStory.ie

A government paper on the use of pepper spray in jails warned that some prisoners would become more violent and that it should not be used on crowded landings, on females, or inmates with mental health issues. The paper was prepared by the Department of Justice against the backdrop of an overcrowding crisis and an increase in violence in Irish prisons. It said there was a case for incapacitant spray and that prison officers in Ireland were “uniq…