The Prison Officers’ Association believes the State of Emergency has come at a time when the Prison Service is under-resourced.

Association President Gerard Gordon believes the nation’s prisons are over-burdened and littered with infrastructural deficiencies.

He says government now expects to use these under-resourced facilities to hold and treat detainees and those arrested during the SOE.

Mr Gordon says the Association is not against any well intended attempt to address crime, but hopes that the service can be properly resourced and supported to ensure the SOE works.