Outbreaks of Covid-19 throughout the prisons network caused disruption to criminal cases on Monday, with one prison officer telling a high court judge there have been "outbreaks in every prison".
On Monday morning a prisoner was not produced in court from Cloverhill Prison, with their barrister telling the presiding judge: "There is a Covid issue at Cloverhill, described as 'lockdown'."
In the afternoon, a prison officer told the court: “There’s been outbreaks in every prison,” adding that he believed the Midlands Prison and others were also affected.
He said his understanding was that Wheatfield was the only site still accepting prisoners and officials were continuing to meet on Monday afternoon to decide a course of action.
The officer expressed concern that if a requested prisoner was sent back to Mountjoy Prison, it was uncertain whether it would be possible to produce him again on Tuesday morning.
The High Court judge said he would not make a remand order before finding out more information.
“I’m going to make inquiries as to whether there is another prison to which he could be remanded in the meantime,” he said, and adjourned the matter.
On his return, the judge said “it would appear we can make the usual order,” before he remanded the prisoner back to Mountjoy.
