Increasing strain on prisons, report finds

OVERCROWDING and the housing of inmates for the non-payment of fines are putting increasing strain on some of Ireland’s main prisons.

According to Prison Visiting Committee annual reports for 2008, the jailing of foreign nationals for deportation and the scourge of drugs in jails is also adding to the prison system’s problems.

In Mountjoy, there was the “degrading spectacle” of seeing as many as 10 or 11 prisoners in one holding cell. There were a lack of phones on landings and a delay in repairing workshops after inmate disturbances in 2008.