Inspector of prisons backs findings of jail report by European watchdog

Government urged to to increase alternatives to custody and bail projects

The comments come as prison overcrowding reached another record on Thursday, with 5,539 in custody. That compares to just under 5,000 when the CPT team visited in May 2024. Picture: Dan Linehan

The inspector of prisons Mark Kelly has echoed the “deep concern” about the state of Irish prisons documented in a detailed report by a European inspection body.

Mr Kelly said the findings by the Council of Europe Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT) mirrors those that he has made.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IRPT) welcomed the CPT report and said that key ways of reducing overcrowding are to expand the availability and use of community sanctions and reduce the increasing numbers of people being held on remand in custody pending trial.

The comments come as prison overcrowding reached another record on Thursday, with 5,539 in custody. That compares to just under 5,000 when the CPT team visited in May 2024.

In a brief statement online, the office of the inspector of prisons in Ireland said: “Council of Europe anti-torture committee publishes its new report, highlighting deep concern about the state of our prisons. OIP Ireland echoes that concern and notes that the CPT’s recommendations mirror those of the Inspectorate.” 

IPRT legal policy and public affairs manager Niamh McCormack said the committee left no room for doubt that the cumulative impact of conditions in prisons “may well amount to inhuman and degrading treatment and that overcrowding turns prisons into human warehouses”.

She said the IPRT recognised the Irish Prison Service is “treading water” and that it was “simply not possible” for it to comply with basic human rights.

“Responsibility does not fall solely on the prison authorities as the Government must take clear and immediate action to reduce the prison population and alleviate pressure on the system,” she said. 

IPRT supports the committee’s recommendation that when a prison has reached capacity, no one else should be admitted.

Some justice sources have said the focus on building more prison spaces has resulted in the need for alternatives to custody being “drowned out”.

They questioned how many recommendations on community sanctions in various government reports and policy documents had been implemented.

The CPT said that while legislation enables the judiciary to impose alternative sanctions for short and medium-term custodial sanctions, they were “not used as fully as they could be”.

It called on Irish authorities to adopt more community sentence measures, in "a systemic approach" that includes judges.

The IPRT has also called for a supported bail service, where people are supervised in the community by probation officers, to cut down on rising remand numbers.

It has sought €300,000 to enable the Probation Service to run a pilot supported bail service for women and €270,000 to build capacity on restorative justice.

Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan said on Wednesday that €495m in the revised National Development Programme would go to prison capital projects over the next five years and create 1,500 spaces. They will be at Castlerea, Cloverhill, Mountjoy, Portlaoise, Wheatfield, Midlands, Dóchas, and the Old Cork prison site.

The projects at existing jails are not expected until 2028 onwards. Some sources have doubted the old Cork prison could be demolished and a new male and female prison, for 400-500 people, built there within five years.