The Prison Officers Association (POA) and senior prison sources have told the that there may be “no option” given that all physical spaces have been used up with bunk beds and mattresses on floors.
The only alternatives are seen as politically toxic, such as expanding temporary release rules to include sex offenders or the “mass discounting” of sentences.
The other possibility would mean reintroducing “inhumane and degrading” conditions in jails by reopening the condemned old Cork Prison or using E Block in Portlaoise Prison, where there are no toilets in cells, and have inmates use buckets.
The latest Irish Prison Service (IPS) figures show there are 5,528 inmates in custody, almost 860 more than the maximum prisons can hold.
Over 500 more prisoners are in jail today than at the start of this year. In January, the Department of Justice warned justice minister Jim O’Callaghan that prison numbers, at that stage, created “very great risks” for both staff and prisoners.
Some prison sources estimate that if the rate of increase in the first half of 2025 continues, numbers could approach 6,000 by year’s end.
Dóchas women’s prison and Cork Prison are seeing the biggest rise in custody numbers this year.
Every cell in Cork is doubled up but it still has almost 90 inmates sleeping on mattresses on the floor, accounting for almost a quarter of all prisoners in the jail. Cork Prison is, by some distance, the most dependent on mattresses of all the Irish jails.
“We said 4,300 was the maximum number that could be housed in our prisons, and passing 5,000 was a tipping point,” POA deputy general secretary Gabriel Keaveny said. “But we have gone way over that and have increased by a further 500 already this year. We are now getting into unthinkable territory. Are we going to have to open recreation halls and schools to house prisoners as there is, physically, nowhere else?”
A senior source said there is “no option” but to consider changing prison regulations to certify recreation halls as suitable for accommodation.
“Every committal prison is absolutely at saturation point. There is no more space for bunk beds or mattresses,” the source said.
The final week of the courts this week, before the summer break, is expected to be busy and prison bosses are said to be concerned about where to house committals and remands.
- Total number in custody is now 119% above bed capacity, compared to 111%;
- The most overcrowded prisons are Limerick female (154%), Dóchas (138%), and Cork (133%);
- The rate of increase this year is greatest in Dóchas (+19%), Cork (+17%), Portlaoise (+16%), Castlerea (+15%), and Mountjoy (+11%);
- There are 201 inmates in Dóchas, which has a capacity of 146, and 393 prisoners in Cork, with a capacity of 296;
- Some 457 inmates are sleeping on mattresses on floors, up 38%, from 356 on April 28 (when IPS started publishing mattress figures);
- Since then, mattress use has more than doubled in Cork (42 to 87) and Cloverhill Remand Prison (33 to 70), and almost doubled in Midlands (46 to 82) and Castlerea (27 to 50).
“Dóchas is in a shocking state,” Mr Keaveny said. “Cloverhill is so packed they are sending remand prisoners to Wheatfield, in Cork Prison every cell is doubled up and you still have 90 on mattresses, in Mountjoy the single cells are small and only suitable for one person but you have two people crammed in.”
He said warm weather is the worst scenario, with the heat in cells and the “shocking ventilation” with little fresh air getting in.
“Where overcrowding prevails, drug abuse increases and you have more rows and debts and when we intervene we are assaulted,” he said. “The fact that something really serious in prisons hasn’t happened is pure chance.”
He added: “We need 1,200 spaces rapid but we are five years away from the bulk of the promised spaces.”
He repeated POA requests to open the old military prison in the Curragh, which he said could take 100 prisoners and open, with refurbishment, the E block in Portlaoise, which could take 200 prisoners.
The original IPS capital plan was expected to create 1,100 extra spaces by 2030/31 but Mr O’Callaghan said last week the renewed plan had the potential to deliver 1,595 spaces, including through the redevelopment of the old Cork Prison and a prison at Thorton Hall.
The justice minister recently secured Cabinet agreement to accelerate the delivery of 960 of the additional spaces in Castlerea, Midlands, Wheatfield, and Mountjoy.
He said that “subject to the necessary funding” in the National Development Plan, this should speed up delivery by 12 to 18 months.
