PRISON officers in Lancaster may stage a 24-hour strike to back their colleagues in Northern Ireland

The Prison Officers Association has announced that staff at both Lancaster Farms and Lancaster Castle have thrown their weight behind a campaign to provide better security for Northern Ireland staff at their homes.

It follows a long-running dispute over a catalogue of attacks by paramilitaries on Northern Ireland prison officers, who have been denied the same level of security as other workers, such as members of the RUC.

Executives visited Lancaster Farms and Prison on Monday and, as the Citizen went to press, the POA were in further talks with Paul Murphy, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.