The Republic’s prison system has returned to the “bad old days” of a “pack ‘em, rack ‘em and stack ‘em” culture, including a revolving-door early-release policy, due to overcrowding, prison officers have said.
Tony Power, president of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), has called on Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan and the Irish Prison Service to address the fact that more than 5,300 prisoners are now in custody, with 358 sleeping on floors on Monday because there were no beds for them.
The overcrowding is so acute it has created an intolerable situation for prison officers and other staff, as well as posing dangers for prisoners as tensions increased among them.
He added prisoners should “not be expected to live” in the conditions in evidence across the Irish prison system.
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It was now imperative, said Mr Power, that Mr O’Callaghan and his officials in the Department of Justice allocated a budget to create more prison spaces.
“It is our contention that the safe working capacity of the present-day prison estate is 4,300, that is more than 1,000 fewer than what is currently in custody,” he told the opening session of the POA annual delegate conference in Galway on Wednesday night.
“I don’t want to sound alarmist, but if we don’t find an immediate solution to this problem, we will have a tragic event or some form of crisis on all our hands.”
The Irish Times last month revealed all secure jails in the Republic had reached, or exceeded, capacity for the first time.
The number of male prisoners in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, had grown to 1,000 for the first time. There were 5,185 prisoners in custody at the time, which has since increased, meaning the system is operating at more than 112 per cent of its bed capacity.
The women’s wing of Limerick Prison was the most overcrowded, at 163 per cent capacity. The Irish prison system consists of 12 secure jails along with two open prisons.
Mr Power said although prison was intended to be rehabilitative, that process was “impossible” without basic living space for prisoners. Overcrowding, and the pressures it placed on the system, also sabotaged resources such as “school spaces or the workshop spaces to allow prisoners engage constructively during their sentences”.
[ Overcrowding in jails is leading to ‘inter-prisoner violence’, inspector findsOpens in new window ]
Mr Power added that in 2019, just before the pandemic, there were 1,500 fewer prisoners in the system compared with today, yet his association back then sounded a warning about a rapidly emerging “disgraceful” overcrowding issue.
In 2023, the POA had also warned then acting minister for justice, Simon Harris, it was unacceptable that 167 prisoners were sleeping on mattresses on floors, yet that number had exponentially increased in the intervening two years.
There followed “hollow promises” of 650 extra prison spaces, including new builds at Cloverhill in Dublin, the Midlands in Portlaoise, and Castlerea in Roscommon, as well as a four-story block on the Mountjoy campus. However, two years later “not a sod has been turned on any of these projects”.
Mr O’Callaghan is due to address delegates on Thursday, while Irish Prison Service director general Caron McCaffrey is also due to attend the conference.
