Defects inherent in the old Cork Prison building in terms of housing vulnerable and suicidal prisoners have been rectified at the new multi-million euro facility, Cork Coroners’ Court heard yesterday.

From leafy Clontarf to a little cell in C Block, from a Victorian red-brick residence to a Victorian prison, Ivor Callely will wonder whether the €4,000 was worth it.

MOUNTJOY Prison has “more drugs than sweets in the tuck shop”, according to the latest damning report by the jail’s visiting committee.

THE Government believes the prison overcrowding problem will begin to ease in the coming days as new spaces come on stream.

AN inmate in need of psychological care was forced to wait 43 days for a bed in the Central Mental Hospital, a prison visiting committee report revealed yesterday.