Five Irish jails have too many prisoners

Five of the country’s prisons have up to one third more inmates than they have capacity for, according to data from the Department of Justice.

When all prisons are taken into account, the total population of 3,995 on July 16 accounted for 96% of bed capacity.

However, when the figure was broken down it showed that while some had less than 90% occupancy, a number of others were operating well above their capacity.