Overcrowding in prisons is leading to intimidation and violence, according to the Prison Officers Association.

Gardai are investigating claims that a prisoner was sexually assaulted by other inmates in Cork Prison.

Regular overcrowding at the new Cork prison has been blamed on the ongoing construction work at Limerick prison.

Prison and Garda authorities are investigating a security incident at the weekend when a replica firearm was discovered in the grounds of a Dublin jail.

Assaults on prison officers by inmates have increased over the last three years – but representatives claim the figures still do not capture the full scale of violence.

The partner of a prisoner deemed to be at “unprecedented” risk of suicide said she was extremely concerned for his welfare during a prison visit just days before he was found dead in his cell.

The filming of a new movie documenting the 1983 prison breakout of IRA prisoners from the North’s Maze Prison got under way at the recently decommissioned Cork prison yesterday.

A prison officer who died after he was injured in a bomb attack in Belfast may have had a heart attack, his colleagues said.

The practice of ‘slopping out’ is nearly at an end in the prison system.

A prisoner who is so disruptive prison officers have to wear riot gear to deal with him has been given a PlayStation and a fish tank in a bid to pacify him, a prison officers’ conference has heard.

Former Mountjoy Prison governor John Lonergan described the reported comments of Eamonn Lillis after his release — “I’ve done my time” — as “arrogant” and “upsetting” for people.

Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris has been spat at in prison.

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.

Prison director general Michael Donnellan said he is “embarrassed” by the recording of phone calls between 139 prisoners currently in custody and their solicitors.

A fresh bugging probe has opened after the Taoiseach yesterday revealed phone calls between 84 prisoners and their solicitors were “inadvertently recorded”.

A 43-year-old man has been sent forward for trial at the Central Criminal Court charged with the murders of his sons.

A woman has pleaded guilty to two charges in connection with the multiple stabbing of another woman on school grounds earlier this year.

A convicted rapist told prison officers he planned to attack a journalist with a razor blade during his sentencing hearing yesterday.

A defence lawyer who gained rare access to an ultra-secret section of the Guantanamo Bay prison said yesterday it does not meet international standards under the Geneva Convention.

An Irish Muslim wanted in the US on terrorism charges is suing the State for allegedly breaching his constitutional rights to privacy, dignity, and the ability to practice his religion while held in Cork Prison.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter yesterday announced the closure of St Patrick’s Institution for young offenders in Dublin.

The Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has announced the closure of St Patrick's Institution for young offenders in Dublin.

The Pentagon is asking for nearly $450m to maintain and upgrade the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close.

Razor wire security nets are being blamed for the €40,000-plus being spent on buying footballs in Irish prisons every year, Government documents show.

This is an artist’s impression of what the new multi-million euro H Block-shaped Cork prison will look like when opened in 2015.

A group providing support services to visitors to Cork Prison have demanded a change to the current visiting regime and said some children are not seeing their fathers due to the rules in place.

A long-serving prison officer was murdered in a motorway ambush by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland today.

Almost 200 prisoners are locked in their cells for 23 hours a day — a rise of 10% in just over six months.

A jailed sex offender wants to bring a High Court challenge aimed at compelling the prison authorities to meet his dietary needs.

There is still a booming trade in mobile phones in many prisons despite the introduction of strict security measures in recent years.

A prisoner serving a life sentence for murder has hanged himself in the North.

Three prison governors in the North face disciplinary action after a violent prisoner was released by mistake, a report said.

The report by Judge Michael Reilly, Inspector of Prisons (Jan 18), into the conditions within Limerick Prison came as no surprise to those familiar with the prison justice system in Ireland.

A LIMERICK prisoner representing himself in a trial for assault causing harm to six Cork Prison officers asked the jury to look beyond the fact he was a prisoner and they were officers.

PLANS for a €70 million super prison for Munster have been put on ‘the long finger’ because of the current state of the Government’s finances.

THE parole system for prisoners may be extended to include those on shorter sentences in a bid to ease overcrowding in the prison system.

A devout Muslim awaiting trial on charges of making a menacing phone call has claimed before the High Court that conditions in Cork Prison are in breach of his rights to practise his religion.

Convicted drug dealer John Gilligan has lost a High Court action aimed at securing his release from prison.

HSE child safety experts have been drafted in by prison bosses to address “serious child protection issues” at Dóchas women’s prison.

PRISON bosses said there are plans to set up a methadone service in Cork Prison — but are not certain when it will begin operating.

A PRISONER facing a long sentence for dealing heroin who carried heroin, cannabis and 180 anti-depressant tablets into prison inside his body was given an additional year in jail yesterday.

THIS week the Irish Prison Chaplains’ Report revealed abuse of thousands of our fellow citizens almost on a par with the terrible human neglect and abandonment recorded in the Murphy and Ferns reports.

PRISON overcrowding has reached such dangerous levels that it is now the central factor in violence among inmates as well as a surging drug culture and the ongoing failure to rehabilitate those convicted of crimes.