PSNI to hand over prisoner responsibility duties
The Prison Service starts taking over responsibility for prisoners inside Northern Ireland’s magistrates courts from police tomorrow.
It is part of a move to free up more police officers from front line policing duties.
The scheme begins in Belfast’s Laganside Courts in the morning when the Prison Service takes over responsibility for the management of prisoners.
In the next two weeks the scheme will be extended to the magistrates courts in Newry, Armagh and Banbridge and will cover all magistrates courts across the North by next year.
Initially Prisoner Custody Officers will be provided by Maybin Support Services while the Prison Service recruits and trains full time staff, said a Prison Service spokesman.
When recruitment and training of permanent Prisoner Custody Officers has been completed they will also assume the duties currently carried out by prison officers of escorting prisoners to court – allowing trained prison officers to be redeployed to prison establishments, said the spokesman.
