The Irish prison system is “at breaking point”, and an overcrowding crisis demands an urgent response from the Government and State agencies, according to a watchdog.
The Progress in Prison Standards report, published on Tuesday by the Irish Penal Reform Trust, found the level of overcrowding is stymying improvements and played a big role in standards falling in key areas last year. These included more prisoners spending at least 19 hours a day in their cells.
Prisoner numbers exceeded 5,000 for the first time last year and the situation continued to deteriorate this year, with the system operating at 123 per cent capacity. There were upwards of 5,700 people in prison but only 4,702 beds, said the trust’s executive director, Saoirse Brady.
It cannot be said that the State is fulfilling its legal duty to ensure a person’s basic right to dignity is upheld, she added, given that almost 600 people were sleeping on mattresses on the floor beside a toilet, there were a record 31 deaths in custody last year and increased levels of violence.
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Solutions to the challenges include an effective community sanctions regime, alternative justice pathways for people with severe mental health or addiction issues, and programmes to assist rehabilitation, the trust said.
Ms Brady welcomed Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan’s support for expanded use of community-based sanctions and his commitment to progress key pieces of legislation to improve accountability and oversight.
She urged the Minister to publish prison inspection reports by the chief inspector of prisons, compiled following unannounced visits to seven prisons in 2023 and last year, the first full general inspections since 2014.
Without publicly available reports and up-to-date data, she said it is “difficult to know what happens behind the high prison walls”.
Of the 31 standards used by the trust to assess progress last year, nine, including the opportunity to develop and maintain life skills, and community engagement and involvement, were assessed as “mixed”. At the same time, seven, including access to an independent complaints mechanism, were ranked as “no change”.
Significant progress was recorded in three areas, including education and training, political and civic participation, and parole. However, the trust was concerned at regress in 11 key areas.
These included safe custody limits, humane conditions, safety and security, time out of cell, and use of force and restraints. Due to a lack of data, it said it could not make a final assessment regarding the use of solitary confinement.
Ms Brady said the report was “not an uplifting read”.
Conditions have fallen to the point where they were described as “degrading” and “inhumane” by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). This situation requires “clear and decisive” action, including implementation of recommendations made by the CPT after its official visit to the State in May of last year, she said.
The Irish Prison Service has accepted the premise of many of the recommendations but says it cannot make improvements while the prison population is so high, Ms Brady noted.
Many steps taken by the service and other agencies last year would result in “vast improvements and meaningful change” if they were not in a crisis situation, she said.
Making improvements requires a “systems-wide” approach led by the Government, she said, and this included ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
The prison system, said Ms Brady, “has far too often been left to care for people who have been failed by social services and health systems”.
The prison service’s annual report, published in September, revealed a sharp rise in committals to 8,704 last year, of which 77 per cent were for 12 months or less, ongoing overcrowding and rising costs.
The average annual cost of a prison place was almost €100,000.
