Due 50 Floors Inmates Prisons On Of To Overcrowding Sleeping Irish

50 inmates sleeping on floors of Irish prisons due to overcrowding — Picture: Capacity Prison, Operating Prison Castlerea Full Or Over At Limerick Were File Midlands Prison, Mountjoy Courtpix Prison, — And

Fri, 20 Jan, 2023 - 18:45

Steven Heaney

Up to 50 inmates have been sleeping on floors in Irish prisons over the past week due to overcrowding and a shortage of available beds.

The Prison Officers' Association (POA) has said the issue, which has worsened in recent weeks, has the potential to increase the risk of violence.

As of Friday, January 20, there were 4,315 prisoners in custody at Irish prisons. Overall, 98% of available beds in the system were occupied.

Four prisons — Mountjoy Prison, Limerick Prison, Castlerea Prison, and Midlands Prison — were operating at or over full capacity. Limerick Women's Prison was operating at 136% capacity.

Every prison in the country except for Shelton Abbey Prison in Wicklow was operating at at least 90% capacity.

POA general secretary Karl Dalton says prison staff have been left to deal with the fallout of the overcrowding.

"Nobody’s going to like sleeping on the floor, and then eventually you’re going to get to the situation where you’re putting prisoners in cells with prisoners that don’t want them on the floor either," he said.

History has shown this just leads to violence within our prisons.

Mr Dalton said the sight of prisoners having to sleep on cell floor mattresses has become far too common.

“It’s been happening constantly and is going to be the future as far as we can see when you watch numbers, and you look at the daily figures going up and up," he told Newstalk.

“With no sign of any new accommodation, it’s just unacceptable."

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A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said it must accept all prisoners committed by the courts, and that it does not have the option of refusing to take prisoners into custody.

"The numbers in prison is, of course, subject to peaks and troughs," the spokesperson said.

Numbers are particularly high when the courts are at their busiest and following the return to a more normal level of court activity, committal numbers have increased across the prison system.

The spokesperson also said that the Irish Prison Service "takes all possible steps" to alleviate overcrowding through "a combination of inter-prison transfers and other contingency measures".

They added that Irish Prison Service works closely with the governors of affected prisons "to alleviate capacity issues, by identifying prisoners who may be suitable for transfer to other prisons or prisoners who may be suitable for structured early release".