A debate in the Senate yesterday over the Department of Corrections' $26m Budget brought attention to a rising level of violence between prisoners and prison officers.

In the 2005/2006 fiscal year there were four assaults categorised as major, while in the current fiscal year the number more than doubled to ten.

At the same time there was a down tick in the number of minor assaults between inmates and corrections officers going from nine to two.

Overall the total number of assaults remained at 12 for both fiscal years.

The sharp rise in major assaults caught the eye of Opposition Sen. Gina Spence-Farmer who spoke of her 30 years experience working on religious programming in the penal system. Mrs. Spence-Farmer's husband also works for the Department of Corrections.

She said: "What is being done to protect the officers?

"This may have an impact on why people may not want to join."

Earlier Public Safety Minister Sen. David Burch reported he expected to be about eight correction officers short even with an officer graduation scheduled to take place today.

When responding to the Opposition's question Sen. Burch revealed the Department purchased expandable batons for officers to use as a protection device.

He said: "I'm told that they are here. The officers will go through some quick refresher training and they will be issued. They are a good tool to be used, and I want to stress, that they will be used for defensive purposes."

Employee shortage seemed to be an even more acute concern when it came to the prisons' psychology department. The Minster said there is currently one psychologist on staff and she happens to be on a three month leave and is leaving the prisons system entirely when her contract ends in about a year.

Meantime there have been two employment drive campaigns to hire at least one more psychologist, but both have failed. One qualified applicant who was evidently waiting to be interviewed got snatched up by another agency because the Government hiring process wasn't moving fast enough, according to Sen. Burch.

He said: "While one can criticise the fact that we have had little success in recruiting, part of the problem is the bureaucracy. With the current crop working its way through the public service commission and all the rest of it, these people aren't waiting around. I can tell you one of the prime candidates, in the two that we're looking to recruit, has just taken herself out of the mix because she's got a job somewhere else."

The Minister's hope was to have a hiring decision made by July of this year.

Sen. Burch also described a fairly new initiative in the area of drug testing for inmates. The programme began in January. It requires that all prisoners be randomly drug tested.

He said there's also a drug smuggling crackdown which includes using drug sniffing dogs and closely monitoring visitors to ensure they aren't passing contraband.

Another new initiative discussed in the Senate Chamber yesterday involved electronically monitoring minor offence criminals on the outside in order to alleviate some of the stress on the penal system. The Minster said they were in the fourth week of a trial testing period. If it's successful Sen. Burch predicted legislation would soon follow.

He said: "It's something that is coming down the pike, it's a matter of timing now."

Sen. Burch described the system as a bracelet and an anklet worn by the convict which will work in tandem with an electronic box kept in his home. If he tried to cut it off or travelled to an area off limits, authorities would be alerted.