Councillors are off to Castlerea Prison

Councillors and other members of the Leitrim Joint Policing Committee (JPC) are to visit Castlerea Prison on January 17, it was revealed at the latest JPC meeting which took place in Carrick-on-Shannon last Monday, December 4.
Cllr Mary Bohan asked what was the purpose of the visit with Cathaoirleach of Leitrim County Council, Cllr Justin Warnock, who proposed the visit, saying that he wondered “how many people go in and see how the system works; we need to go and see it for ourselves because you can never bring about change or comment on something unless you've seen it.”
Cllr Bohan responded that “even after visiting it, we have absolutely no say in how the prison service is run; it's not our remit.”
Cllr Felim Gurn said he felt it was “important to go in and visit the prison system because we haven't actually built any prisons in the last twenty odd years.”
He said that following convictions for those involved in the Dublin riots, “is there jail space to put them away? We need to see this first-hand; see the conditions and see how the system works.”

'Donuts' on roads
Another topic that came up under correspondence related to “the serious effect those doing 'donuts,' etc. at certain locations on the road are having on people's lives” in the Manorhamilton area.
Inspector Carla Curry said that this year's Christmas Road Safety Campaign is now in operation and that there are “additional checkpoints and rolling mobile patrols as well as Operation Lifesaver which target seatbelt usage, mobile phone usage and speed; they are in operation all over the county.
“I can certainly get some additional attention in the Manorhamilton area,” she said.
“We also have a speed gun that has been allocated to Kinlough garda station so I will get them to proactively be out and about and increase Operation Lifesaver.”
Inspector Curry said that once they have the location of the activity, they will be able to “proactively target it.”