Inmates at Limerick Women's Prison sleeping on mattresses or floors due to overcrowding

Justice Minister Helen McEntee: 'Irish Prison Service must accept all prisoners committed by the courts.'

Prisoners at Limerick Women's Prison have slept on mattresses on floors on 208 occasions since the start of September, with overcrowding rampant at the jail.

Figures show that since the start of last September as many as seven prisoners a night have had no bed, including on Tuesday night of this week and for four nights in succession at the end of last month.

In the past two and a half months, there have been just seven nights where no female prisoner was sleeping on a mattress in Limerick.

The figures were provided by Justice Minister Helen McEntee, in response to parliamentary questions by Patrick Costello and Éamon Ó Cuív.

It comes after the Irish Prison Service said just last week that overcrowding was attributable to a 13% increase in committals of women in the first nine months of this year.

In her response, Ms McEntee said the Prison Service must accept all prisoners committed by the courts and has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time, noting the increase in committal numbers across the prison system.

"Where the number of prisoners exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, Prison Service officials make every effort to deal with this through a combination of inter-prison transfers and structured Temporary Release. 

Decisions in relation to temporary release are considered on a case-by-case basis and the safety of the public is paramount when those decisions are made."

The minister also referred to the construction of a new prison in Limerick, which should be operational in the first quarter of next year, which will provide 22 additional female cell spaces, adding: "We are also taking a number of short and medium-term steps to address the issue of increasing prison numbers."

But Keith Adams, penal policy advocate in the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, has said that such has been the level of overcrowding in the system in recent weeks that even if new places were available, the system would still likely have exceeded capacity.

Prison 'supposed to rehabilitate'

He said prison was supposed to be rehabilitative, something that was difficult when overcrowding was so acute.

"While the minister revealed that no female prisoners had slept on the floor in the Dóchas Centre since September, we should be equally as concerned about the changes to capacity," Mr Adams said.

"With women now sleeping on the floor of Limerick Prison and the Dóchas Centre’s working capacity significantly increasing, the State is now warehousing many women who come into contact with the criminal justice system. 

"This approach is causing the State to deviate further and further from the international Bangkok Rules which require women in prison to be treated humanely and with dignity.

Being forced to sleep on the floor could not be considered human."

Saoirse Brady, executive director Irish Penal Reform Trust, said new upcoming facilities were "old comfort to the women currently sleeping on a mattress on the floor".

"We know that women in prison have frequently experienced high levels of trauma, are often sentenced for very short periods of time, and have a range of complex needs. 

"These needs are clearly not being met in a creaking system where a person is taken into custody and left to sleep on a mattress on the floor. This will only compound their vulnerability."