The death of an in­mate at the Arou­ca Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP) yes­ter­day morn­ing has reignit­ed con­cerns over prison staffing lev­els and the abil­i­ty of of­fi­cers to ad­e­quate­ly pro­tect in­mates.

Pres­i­dent of the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA), Ger­ard Gor­don, said a short­age of prison of­fi­cers can ham­per their abil­i­ty to car­ry out their du­ties, cre­at­ing se­cu­ri­ty gaps and com­pro­mis­ing in­mate safe­ty.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day in re­sponse to the death of 48-year-old in­mate Christo­pher Ban­field, Gor­don de­scribed the in­ci­dent as trag­ic.