Saoirse Brady

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) today launched its latest annual Progress in the Penal System report, which assesses Ireland’s penal system against 35 human rights-based standards.

The 2024 findings paint the starkest picture to date, of a prison service overwhelmed, overstretched, and unable to uphold the fundamental rights of many people in its care.

Saoirse Brady, IPRT’s executive director, said: “This seventh edition of PIPS unfortunately does not make for an uplifting read.

“Overcrowding has reached unprecedented levels, prison conditions have deteriorated, and far too many people in detention are not afforded their basic right to dignity

“In June 2024, for the first time ever, the prison population exceeded 5,000 people, marking a crisis the likes of which we have never experienced.

“Unless clear and decisive action is taken, this trend will not reverse any time soon.”

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) is “fighting a losing battle against overcrowding in a system at breaking point”, she said.

Ireland’s chief inspector of prisons and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) have both warned that conditions in Irish prisons are reaching the threshold of inhuman and degrading treatment.

The prison estate is currently operating at 123 per cent capacity, with upwards of 5,700 people incarcerated in a system with beds for 4,702 people.

“Regardless of the pressures on the system, the State has a legal duty to ensure that a person’s basic right to dignity is upheld,” Ms Brady said.

“With almost 600 people sleeping on mattresses on the floor beside a toilet, a record number of deaths in custody and increased levels of violence, it cannot be said that the State is fulfilling this duty.”

IPRT is calling for greater transparency and accountability in the prison system, as well as whole-of-government action to reduce reoffending.