Female wing of Limerick Prison is most overcrowded in the system
In Picture: Friday, On Wing Prison Estate The The Was 141% Prison Limerick Dan Linehan Most The Capacity, Of Overcrowded At Female
The female wing of Limerick prison is the most overcrowded in the system — despite hopes expressed by the prison visiting committee in its 2022 report that overcrowding could be eliminated and “inmates transferred to the new building as soon as possible.”
The report has only just been published by the Department of Justice, along with the visiting committee reports for 2022 for each of the other prisons across the country. Some of the reports were finalised and submitted to the department over a year ago.
Services such as education and medical appointments for prisoners have been hampered by a lack of prison staff across the prison estates while overcrowding is leading to four men sharing cells in Cloverhill prison, according to the reports.
The female wing of Limerick Prison was the most overcrowded prison in the estate on Friday, at 141% capacity, while the Dóchas centre in Dublin was at 121% capacity.
When the committee visited the female wing in Limerick in 2022, a move into a new purpose-built female wing was being planned. At the time, the capacity of the wing was at 157%, with 44 inmates in a facility designed for 28. It was described as "appalling". The committee said at the time:
However, on Friday, according to statistics published by the Irish Prison Service, there were 79 inmates in the Limerick women’s facility which was designed for 56 prisoners.
There were 4,934 inmates across the estate, which has a total bed capacity for 4,516 prisoners. 508 inmates were on temporary release, a measure which is used increasingly to relieve the overcrowding burden.
In the report for Cloverhill, its visiting committee highlighted: “Cloverhill contains a large proportion of triple occupancy cells. The high rate of committals to Cloverhill, 2704 in 2022 compared with 2300 in 2021, created serious issues of overcrowding that has, over time, resulted in four man cell occupancy, which effectively mean an increasing number of men sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Issues of privacy, toileting, anxiety and stress relating to overcrowded conditions are frequently raised by prisoners during meeting with members of the Visiting Committee.”
It added: “The Committee see this overcrowding and four man cell occupancy as a potentially serious threat to the order and stability of the prison.”
It highlighted that the prison has been operating at 100% capacity since the summer of 2022. However, latest figures from the Irish Prison Service shows that the prison was operating at 115% capacity on Friday, with 499 inmates in custody at the facility which has a bed capacity of 433.
The prison’s visiting committee raised concern about staff shortages and the redeployment of staff to other duties “features regularly in conversation with prisoners, prison officers and services”.
Similar incidents were highlighted in other prisons, as were concerns about mental health of inmates.
The reports are published as a recruitment drive is underway by the Irish Prison Service for up to 250 prison officers.