The bulk of closed prisons are operating at unsafe levels, raising the risk of violence, according to penal reformers.

Two experts have been appointed to the independent research study on familicide and domestic homicide.

Prison officers claim they are being attacked with "impunity" and that jail chiefs are not taking disciplinary action against the inmates responsible.

The distraught mother of Gary Douch, brutally killed in a preventable tragedy in Mountjoy Prison, has slammed the Department of Justice for failing to pay the barrister who conducted the inquiry into her son’s death for almost four years.

Prison officers are calling on the Government for a new watchdog body to investigate complaints made by offenders.

Delays in supplying important documentation "prolonged" the Commission of Investigation into the death of prisoner Gary Douch — and many documents were "incomplete, piecemeal and sometimes illegible".

Psychotic killer Stephen Egan did not receive proper psychiatric care in prison after he fatally assaulted Gary Douch in a packed cell in August 2006.

TO the damning prison reports straining the shelves at Prison Service HQ, comes another four-volume dossier. Totalling almost 800 pages, the reports of the Commission of Investigation into the death of Gary Douch make for grim reading.

The head of the prison service has said that the chances of a fatal attack on an inmate happening today, are very slim.

Appalling conditions and overcrowding throughout Mountjoy on the night of July 31, 2006, meant seven vulnerable prisoners were packed into one holding cell supposedly for their own protection.

The violent death of a prisoner in Mountjoy Prison followed a litany of failures within the Irish prison system in the way the victim and his "vulnerable" killer were treated.

The Commission of Investigation report into the death of Gary Douch made almost 30 pages of recommendations on prison system reform needed to prevent a repeat of the conditions which led to the tragedy.

A Commission of Investigation report has found the death of inmate Gary Douch in a Dublin prison was the result of catastrophic failures and was avoidable.

The brother of murdered prisoner Gary Douch has been jailed for seven years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for possession of explosives.

ONE prisoner has died while in custody in an Irish jail every six weeks since the start of 2007, the Department of Justice has confirmed.

IRELAND has been highlighted by human rights group Amnesty International for failing to protect vulnerable children and the mentally ill and resisting probes into United States intelligence agencies’ use of Shannon Airport.

PRISON officers and chaplains working in Wheatfield believe the good work in the prison is being seriously jeopardised by a growing overcrowding problem.

In part one of a three-day investigation Cormac O’Keeffe unveils new figures which reveal a worrying and growing crisis behind Ireland’s prison walls

THERE is an impression that our prisons are full of drug dealers lounging on bunk beds as they flick through the channels on their huge plasma screen TVs, all the while coo-cooing their budgies.

An official report has criticised the former Minister for Justice for refusing to appoint the Inspectorate of Prisons to investigate the murder of an inmate.

VIOLENCE in Irish prisons is on the increase with growing numbers of prisoners seeking protection from fellow inmates, a report from an international human rights watchdog has found.

THE human rights of children in Ireland came under fire yesterday in an international report.

GARDAÍ were last night facing allegations of a cover-up over the death of a 20-year-old in custody.

THE savage murder of Gary Douch, who was kicked, strangled and beaten to death in his Mountjoy prison cell, is to be probed by a commission of investigation.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today announced that a Commission of Investigation is to be established into the death of Gary Douch, who died following an attack on him while he was a prisoner in Mountjoy prison on August 1, 2006.

Sinn Féin spokesperson Aengus O Snodaigh TD today accused Minister for Justice Michael McDowell of "headline grabbing" and posing by adopting a tough stance on crime.

THE horrific killing of a prisoner in Mountjoy could easily be repeated in Cork if the jail’s chronic overcrowding is not addressed, it was warned yesterday.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust is calling for an independent inquiry into the problems besetting Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

The regime at Mountjoy Prison is expected to come under renewed scrutiny today following the deaths of two inmates in a 12-hour period yesterday.

JUSTICE MINISTER Michael McDowell is using St Patrick’s Institution as a “warehouse for young people” where they can learn the finer points of crime, the Prison Inspector claimed yesterday.

PRISONERS in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison are living in deplorable conditions, a new report has found.

Pressure was mounting on Michael McDowell today following the suicide of an inmate at Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison.

A man in his late 30s was found dead in a cell at Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison today.

A PRIEST yesterday asked Justice Minister Michael McDowell why murder victim Gary Douch had to die the way he did in prison.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell last night moved to ease overcrowding at Mountjoy jail in the aftermath of a gruesome killing there earlier this month.

The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has introduced moves to ease overcrowding problems at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

The Prison Officers Association (POA) is due to meet representatives of the prison service this afternoon to discuss overcrowding at Mountjoy.

FORMER High Court judge Dermot Kinlen is well placed to be critical of the manner in which the independent inquiry into the death of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison is being conducted.

THE appointment of a former Justice Department official to investigate last week’s murder of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison has been criticised by the Inspector of Prisons, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen.

Calls have been made to speed up plans for a new prison for Spike Island following a series of chronic overcrowding problems and a number of violent incidents in Cork and Dublin prisons in recent days.

IN an ideal world, Justice Minister Michael McDowell’s proposal to house prisoners seeking protection in single cells for at least 24 hours would be fine — but in the context of the Irish prison system it is virtually unworkable.

The Irish Prison Service is to implement a recommendation regarding prisoner safety.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has said the apparent circumstances surrounding the killing of an inmate at Mountjoy Prison earlier this week are a cause for real concern.

The 23-year-old man detained yesterday following the killing of an inmate at Mountjoy Prison has been returned to the jail this morning.

A 23-year-old man remains in garda custody this morning after he was arrested in connection with the death of an inmate at Mountjoy Prison yesterday morning.

THERE will be more deaths in Mountjoy unless the drugs problem is tackled, the chaplain at the country’s largest committal facility warned last night.

THE necessity to establish an independent inquiry into the death of a prisoner in Mountjoy Prison is indicative of the intolerable overcrowding conditions that have been allowed to flourish in recent years by the policy of the present Government, spearheaded by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday ordered an independent inquiry into the death of Mountjoy prisoner Gary Douch.

A prisoner was tonight being questioned about the killing of a drug dealer in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison.