A special prison unit is being set up to house the country’s most violent prisoners.

The prevalence of prescription drug-dealing and the severe lack of drug-free recovery centres in Dublin’s north inner city are some of the challenges facing the area, according to its community leaders.

The Inspector of Prisons has criticised the abuse of powers by prison officers, bullying among inmates, and the “grave” prevalence of drugs in jails. 

Some hardened criminals may soon swap ‘Glocks’ for garden hoes to tend to begonias and dahlias.

Serious overcrowding, violence and cuts in resources have impacted on inmates in the prison system, according to the Visiting Committee.

The number of women being jailed continues to reach record highs — despite a significant drop in the total number of people being sent to prison.

The number of offenders in Dóchas Women’s Prison continues to rise with 135 inmates packed into a jail with 105 beds.

Prison is often a “very expensive way” of making the lives of vulnerable women worse, the inspector of prisons has said.

Stopping the use of certain tranquillisers in prisons and hospitals reduces the levels of violence and self-harm and helps raise health standards, according to the country’s leading forensic psychiatrist.

More than 30,000 cases of temporary release have been granted in prisons over the last eight months, official figures show.

Record numbers of women are being jailed, but almost four in 10 are released early due to chronic overcrowding.

Pill-popping prisoners are costing the State €3m a year — or almost €700 for every inmate in the system.

PRISON inspectors claim a female inmate has suffered a “serious violation of her human rights” and that other women in Dochas Prison were subjected to “unnecessary humiliation” by being ordered to strip naked in front of male staff for an internal body scan.

THERE were 1,014 incidents of violence among prisoners in Irish jails during 2010, and more than 800 prisoners may be on protection at any one time.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern today opened a new wing at Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison catering for up to 200 prisoners.

PRISON officers said the overcrowding crisis in Mountjoy Prison “undoubtedly” played a part in Wednesday night’s riot and claimed inmates were like “flies on top of each other” in the notorious prison.

FOREIGN Minister Micheál Martin recently co-chaired a high-profile event with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the margin of the UN Millennium Development Goals review summit in New York.

ONE of the country’s longest serving and most outspoken prison governors, John Lonergan, last night marked his retirement, warning that he first raised overcrowding issues at the jail 25 years ago.

PRISON boss Brian Purcell has hit back at claims from a prison governor her job had been made “completely impossible” by the Prison Service.

The Government was pressed today to carry out an urgent review of the country’s only women’s prison after its governor resigned citing overcrowding.

Ten prisoners given Christmas parole have failed to return to jail, it was revealed today.

THE closure of Ireland’s only open prison for juvenile offenders will make us the shame of Europe, probation workers said yesterday.