Officers' safety of 'paramount importance' says prison boss

Fri, 13 May 2016

Keeping prison officers at the Isle of Man Prison safe from harm is of "paramount importance".

That's the message from the Prison and Probation Service which says it will always press for prosecution if a member of staff is assaulted.

Earlier this week serving prisoner 34-year-old Christopher Mcluskey had his sentence extended by nine months after creating a makeshift knife out of razor blades and lunging at an officer in his cell.

Head of the service Bob McColm says incidents of this nature will not be tolerated adding the prison officer was "fortunate not to sustain serious injury".

Describing the attack as "premeditated" he said occurrences like this are "extremely rare" and the relationships between prisoners and staff are "generally very good".