The Irish Prison Service (IPS) is shelling out almost €550,000 on over 29,000 white Y-fronts, dressing gowns, polo shirts and other items of clothing for inmates.

Convicted criminals have been gifted more than €1m in ‘bus money’ to cover the cost of transport following their release from jail since 2009, new figures have revealed.

Irish charity Bóthar, which has been shipping livestock to developing countries for 25 years, now has the help of inmates of Shelton Abbey, Ireland’s open prison.

Prisoners are twice as likely to escape from jails in Ireland than the rest of Europe, inspectors have revealed.

Prison authorities are struggling to combat the problem of smuggling in Irish jails, with new figures revealing that more than 3,200 drug seizures have taken place in prisons over the past three years.

A Cork woman from a family of sporting legends is overseeing the construction of a creamery in Africa, supplied by cows cared for by convicted Irish criminals.

More than 290 prisoners have absconded from the country’s two open centres since 2010 – and 15 remain at large.

Plans are being put in place to deploy mobile phone blocking systems in prisons to prevent inmates running criminal operations from their cells.

A former Fine Gael councillor, who told a court that he saw stabbings in Mountjoy Prison and "wanted out", has been granted an extension of time to appeal his conviction for receiving corrupt payments.

The average cost of jailing the three Dundon brothers who were convicted of murder as well as other dangerous criminals at the State’s only high security prison shot up last year.

Assaults on prison officers increased by 50% last year — and almost one-third of them occurred in a young offenders institution.

It’s ‘ice-cream Sunday’ for murderers, gangland bosses, and other convicts with menus from the country’s prisons showing inmates are treated to an ice-cream dessert on a Sunday.

More than 41,000 sick days were taken by prison staff last year, at a cost of €7.5m to the taxpayer.

I read with interest an article by Cormac O’Keeffe in the Irish Examiner (Nov 25) in connection with inmates in Shelton Abbey open prison being granted permission to have mobile phones. It said they are being given out as part of a pilot scheme to improve prison behaviour.

Six years after a massive crackdown on mobile phones in prisons began, inmates in one jail have been granted permission to have them.

The Prison Service has introduced a “blanket ban” on all mobile phones in prisons, including those used by prison governors.

Drug dealers, perpetrators of assaults, burglars, and robbers account for the bulk of inmates who are part of a supervised early release scheme.

The former governor of Mountjoy Prison has said the release of Malcolm MacArthur is “a positive step” and said it may have happened sooner were it not for political pressure.

The country’s most infamous prisoner, Malcolm MacArthur, is a free man after serving 30 years for the violent murder of a nurse in Phoenix Park.

THE sole witness to one of Ireland’s most notorious murders has broken a 30-year silence to reveal his attempts to save the life of nurse Bridie Gargan, who was beaten to death in Dublin’s Phoenix Park by Malcolm MacArthur.

A TOP-LEVEL report was published last week on the Irish prison system.

A total of 134 prisoners will be granted temporary release this Christmas, it was confirmed today.

THE driver of the car in which two Cork city teenagers were killed earlier this year had been an escaped prisoner.

PRISON bosses were last night taken to task for awarding contracts worth around €95 million to one company without going to tender.

Prison bosses were tonight taken to task for awarding contracts worth around €95m to one company without going to tender.

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

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.

THERE are 409 prisoners currently on the run, the Minister for Justice has admitted, including 50 people wanted for attempted murder, assault and harassment.

PLEDGES by the Government to remove the scourge of drugs from jails have been ridiculed with figures revealing there were 1,293 drug seizures in prisons last year.

Bóthar, the international development agency that specialises in the use of livestock, has announced that it has received a record-breaking’ response to its ‘Spring Calf Appeal’ for the donation of heifer calves to its Shelton Abbey prisoner rehabilitation project.

BÓTHAR, the international development agency that specialises in the use of livestock, has launched an unusual appeal to farmers.

Hundreds of inmates have been forced to double up in cells due to chronic overcrowding in the country's prisons, it emerged today.

Each inmate at Ireland’s top security Portlaoise jail costs taxpayer's more than €250,000 a year, it was revealed today.

MORE than 320 struggling Ugandan families are set to benefit from presents of goats cared for by Irish prisoners.

Severe overcrowding, drugs, and the lack of in-cell sanitation are major problems in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison, a report revealed today.

Two men in their 20s have died in separate road accidents in Co Wicklow and Co Meath this morning.

The Prison Service is spending €500,000 to supply inmates with clothes and shoes, it emerged today.

The Irish Prison Service today put out to tender a €12m contract to feed prisoners for the next two years.

One of the longest-serving prisoners in the State is to be let out of jail on Christmas Day.

The total capital budget in 2007 for the justice sector will be a record €152m. Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has welcomed the allocation.