Ireland
Europe
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
Cork Prison has hit yet another overcrowding record, with 423 people in custody today, 120 of them without beds.
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Activities
Social ties
Ireland
An incarcerated man left without a toothbrush or toothpaste for months, a sports hall used for spin-bike classes for officers but closed to imprisoned people, and a violent incident in a shared cell leaving a man with life-changing injuries were among concerns noted by inspectors at Cork Prison.
Europe
Access to legal rights
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Social ties
Ireland
An unannounced inspection of Mountjoy Prison found that incarcerated people were being subjected to “degrading treatment” in conditions that did not meet minimum human rights standards.
Europe
Justice
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Violence
Ireland
The State’s human rights commission and the prisons’ inspector are to discuss legal concerns over potential breaches of European laws caused by the prison overcrowding crisis.
Europe
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
Ireland’s chief prison inspector says more than 600 people in jails are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor in conditions that are “inhuman and degrading”.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Ireland
The Irish Prison Service is fighting a “losing battle” against overcrowding, with the current system at “breaking point”, penal reformers have said.
Europe
Justice
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
The State has failed to address the “degrading” conditions in which incarcerated people live in the country’s prisons and detention centres, according to an EU watchdog.
Women
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Rehabilitation
Ireland
Mark Kelly said that problems are getting steadily worse, and Ireland is following the same pattern of “chronically overcrowded” prisons seen in England and Wales.
Elderly prisoners
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Ireland
There were 31 deaths in custody in 2024, the highest number since the office of the Inspector of Prisons was established in 2012.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Justice
Overcrowding
Ireland
Data on the accommodation of people on remand in prison, shows that 84 unconvicted men in Cork were sharing cells with convicted ones on one day last month.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Overcrowding
Ireland
Data provided to the department by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) shows that there have been 269 drug seizures in Cork Prison since 2020.
Europe
Mental health
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Rehabilitation
Ireland
The number of people sleeping on prison floors has surged amid a deepening overcrowding crisis. 504 incarcerated people were sleeping on the floors of jails on mattresses because no beds were available.
Europe
Drugs
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Violence
Ireland
The Prison Officers Association (POA) has said the overcrowding crisis within Irish prisons has deepened even further this year. The service has published its annual report for 2024, in which it highlights the urgent need for expanded capacity amid mounting challenges that it faces.
Pre-trial detention
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Ireland
There are 376 people in Cork prison today, a new overcrowding record and representing 127% capacity, making it the most overcrowded men’s prison in the country.
Europe
Health
Mental health
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Ireland
The number of incarcerated people who died in custody increased by 55% last year - up from 20 in 2023 to 31 last year. However, Chief Inspector of Prisons said the “increase is even higher” when the figures are broken down.“If we look purely at deaths in prisons, they’ve actually gone up by 90%”.
Women
Europe
Drugs
Material conditions
Overcrowding
Alternatives
Ireland
The prison population across Ireland exceeds 5,000 in a system with bed capacity for over 4,600, leaving the Irish Prison Service operating at 14% over capacity.
Crises
Europe
Material conditions
Facilities
Overcrowding
Ireland
Prison overcrowding is at another crisis point with all secure jails having reached, or exceeded, capacity for the first time. The number of incarcerated male in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, has this week grown to 1,000 for the first time.