'Inhuman and degrading': Prison inspector says inmates forced to sleep on floor due to overcrowding

Mon, 12 Jan, 2026 - 15:46

Cianan Brennan

Ireland’s chief prison inspector says more than 600 people in jails are forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor in conditions that are “inhuman and degrading”.

Addressing the chronic overcrowding in prisons, Mark Kelly will tell the Oireachtas Justice Committee on Tuesday that at the end of 2024, the prisoner population was already “many hundreds in excess of the numbers that could be safely accommodated”, adding "the situation described in my 2024 report has worsened significantly over the course of 2025”.