Prison overcrowding crisis prompts renewed talks as numbers hit record levels

Newly released correspondence shows that the director general of the Irish Prison Service, Caron McCaffrey, urged the Department of Justice last October to “urgently” reconvene the group to address what she described as “unprecedented” capacity challenges.

The group brings together officials from the Department of Justice, the prison service, the Courts Service, the Probation Service and An Garda Síochána. It last met in September 2024, when fewer than 5,000 people were in custody and prisons were operating at 110 per cent capacity.

A Department of Justice spokesman confirmed that the group met again in January and is scheduled to meet once more this week.

At the time of McCaffrey’s intervention, the prison population had reached its “highest ever number in custody”, with 5,581 people detained. She warned that several institutions were under acute strain, writing: “Certain prisons are now under extreme duress as a result of operating at higher than the average capacity figure (120 per cent), with six of our prisons operating between 123 [and] 154 per cent of capacity.”

Since then, the number of people in custody has risen further. By the end of last month, the prison estate held 5,909 inmates, operating at 125 per cent capacity. Although numbers have since eased slightly, there were still 5,776 prisoners last Friday, with the system running at 122 per cent capacity.

Overcrowding has resulted in large numbers of inmates sleeping on mattresses on cell floors. Figures show that 530 prisoners were in this position, including 172 in the Midlands Prison and 97 in Cork Prison.

Conditions are particularly acute in women’s facilities. With 224 women in custody, the Dóchas Centre at Mountjoy was operating at 153 per cent capacity, while Limerick Women’s Prison was at 152 per cent capacity, housing 85 inmates.

McCaffrey met departmental officials last October to discuss how to manage and mitigate risks arising from the overcrowding crisis. In her correspondence, she pointed to the system in the UK, where prison capacity limits are set at ministerial level to maintain safe operating thresholds.

Advocacy groups have also raised alarm. The Irish Penal Reform Trust said “persistent overcrowding” over the past three years has created “degrading and dehumanising conditions” across much of the prison estate.

Its executive director, Saoirse Brady, said: “Multiple people now share cells the size of a car-parking space, with more than 500 sleeping on mattresses on the floor beside unpartitioned toilets.”

In response, the Department of Justice said measures are being pursued to ease pressure. A pilot temporary release scheme introduced at Limerick Women’s Prison in 2024 is being expanded to cover more eligible inmates. The Probation Service is also working with the judiciary to encourage greater use of community service orders as an alternative to custodial sentences of a year or less.