Some individual prisons are at even higher levels of overcrowding: for example, Mountjoy male prison is at 109% over capacity, while Limerick male prison is at 133%. In our two women’s prisons, the situation is even worse: Mountjoy female prison is at 121%, while Limerick female prison is the most overcrowded prison in the country, at 182% capacity, according to the Prison Service’s statistics. 

One might ask: why should this be of concern to the law-abiding citizenry of Ireland? The reason it should concern us is because of the implications of prison overcrowding for public safety, in addition to its negative impact on human rights.

'Wrecking ball'

Prison overcrowding results in those affected sharing cramped living and sleeping spaces, with some of those detained having to sleep on floors. Those working in prisons have previously and aptly described the impact of overcrowding as having a ‘wrecking ball effect’ on all aspects of prison and prisoner management, with inevitable negative consequences, including demeaning and devaluing human rights standards. 

Overcrowding gives rise to increased tensions among prisoners, worsening mental health, and over-stretched staff, as well as reduced access to education, training and rehabilitative services for those in custody. 

Violence and other organised criminal activities take hold in overcrowded institutions, while effective rehabilitation, as well as the good management of early release and post-release supervision, become incidental to crisis-managing prison numbers, a process known in previous decades as the ‘revolving door’ of unplanned early release. 

Overcrowding is truly a ‘wrecking ball’ on any good that may be expected from sending those who have offended to prison. At its worst, severe prison overcrowding results in institutions that are dangerous for prisoners and staff and fly in the face of civilised human rights standards.

Solutions

So, what can be done to address the current and worsening fact of prison overcrowding? One thing is certain: building more prison spaces is not the answer. Apart from the huge investment of money, time and other resources required (see the example of the failed Thornton Hall prison building project in North County Dublin, for example), creating more prison spaces will do little to improve public safety. 

Prisons provide an important public service but should be retained for those who need to be there. If we want to be effective, our wider criminal justice system should prioritise diversion and community sanctions for those whose offending and dangerousness do not require them to be in prison, thereby maximising opportunities for rehabilitation.

In recent times, the ratio of prison spaces — when we have held that number at or below a maximum of 4,000 spaces — to population in Ireland has been at roughly the European average, reflecting a positive aspect of our penal system. Supervised community sanctions, like probation and community service, are more successful in rehabilitation than imprisonment, which can constitute a ‘university of crime’, and huge disruptor of family and social connections for many who end up there. 

Previous community-based initiatives undertaken, to good effect, in times of comparable overcrowding have included the introduction of community service in the mid-1980s, intensive probation supervision in the 90s, the wide-ranging changes incorporated in the Children Act 2001, the Community Return programme in 2011 and more recently through the Joint Agency Response to Crime, targeting prolific offenders.

Indeed, the Probation of Offenders Act 1907, which commenced in practice 115 years ago this year, and remains as the primary legislative basis for probation work in Ireland, was a far-seeing piece of legislation aimed at diverting offenders from custody and facilitating rehabilitation and reintegration in the community. Nevertheless, it has long outlived its usefulness and must be replaced. 

Probation practice has moved on considerably and its legislative basis must reflect that. The heads of a new bill to address this statutory gap was published by then Minister Alan Shatter in 2014, but despite repeated commitments to progress that bill, successive ministers and governments have so far failed to do so.

More specific and immediate measures that can and should be prioritised now do not even require legislation or capital-building programmes. To begin with, the overall prison population must be actively set and maintained at a level where meaningful rehabilitation and re-integration programmes in custody can be prioritised. 

Among the immediate steps that can therefore be taken include the following:

• Make a political/policy decision to ‘cap’ our prison population at a maximum of between 3,500 and 4,000, 
• Take urgent action to implement policy providing for more community-based sentencing and addressing overcrowding, 
• Prioritise and resource the Probation Service and community-based sanctions, 
• Implement measures to divert those with mental illness and significant mental disorders and addictions away from custody, 
• Address issues associated specifically with pathways into and out of the criminal justice system for women, and 
• Better manage the numbers in custody awaiting trial.

Only if we take such steps can we as a society have a criminal justice system which is both humane and effective and where the pernicious effect of prison overcrowding becomes a thing of the past.

Vivian Geiran Adjunct Assistant Professor, TCD School of Social Work and Social Policy; former Director, Irish Probation Service; and co-author (with Dr Shane McCarthy) of Probation and Parole in Ireland: Law and Practice.