Life behind bars: A cycle of violence, despair and drugs

In part one of a three-day investigation Cormac O’Keeffe unveils new figures which reveal a worrying and growing crisis behind Ireland’s prison walls

DECLAN said he saw a man being murdered when he was in prison. He said there were fights almost every day in the five years he was in Mountjoy Prison, most of it over drugs.

Once, he said he had to “batter” a guy, after he called him a rat.