Overcrowding and poor healthcare contributed to a 50 per cent increase in prison deaths last year, according to a damning report from the Inspector of Prisons.
There were 31 deaths in custody in 2024, the highest number since the office of the Inspector of Prisons was established in 2012.
The figures are presented against a backdrop of record, ongoing overcrowding which has seen many prisoners forced to sleep on mattresses on the floors of cramped cells.
Chief Inspector of Prisons, Mark Kelly, said overcrowding was leading to “unacceptable” living conditions for prisoners and poor working conditions for prison staff.
RM Block
Prisons are currently at 120 per cent capacity, with 5,628 inmates in custody. Just under 500 of these are sleeping on the floor.
Mr Kelly said “a significant number of people in prison are being held in conditions that can only be described as inhumane and degrading”.
He said contributing factors to the large increase in prison deaths last year include “overcrowding, mental health pressures and gaps in the provision of healthcare services".
The Government has committed to significantly expanding the prison estate while prison authorities have been constructing temporary buildings.
However, Mr Kelly said no comparable country “has ever succeeded in building its way out of overcrowding”. He called for immediate action “at the highest political levels to address this ongoing crisis”.
He also criticised one of the Irish Prison Service’s flagship projects, the National Violence Reduction Unit (NVRU), based in the Midlands Prison, which is designed to safely house and treat the country’s most violent inmates.
The unit was found to be mostly focused on security, with “limited meaningful therapeutic engagement” for prisoners. Half of all NVRU inmates had no engagement with psychology services.
There were also no structured progression plans for people to move off the unit.
“Inhumane and degrading conditions” were found elsewhere in the Midlands, with occupants of overcrowded cells forced to eat meals on the floor next to unpartitioned toilets, the report states.
Some prisoners on restricted regimes only had 30 minutes of yard time and 30 minutes of shower time per day. Many declined yard time, meaning they spent all but half an hour locked up in their cells, which impacted their mental health.
The prison was found to have just one nurse on at night for a population of 986 men.
Limerick Women’s Prison, recently upgraded to provide modern, rehabilitation-focused facilities, is already at 144 per cent capacity. This was affecting “the physical, psychological and emotional safety of women”, the Inspector’s report found.
Conditions at Cloverhill remand prison in Dublin had deteriorated from a previous inspection, the report stated, with “severe overcrowding and degrading conditions” observed in the facility.
Over a third of its population was being held four-to-a-cell, in spaces designed for three people. Some men had to stand while eating due to lack of chairs, while toilets in many cells were not fully partitioned.
The Inspector’s office also found that prison officers had placed tape over the cell alarm system to mute calls on some landings. This was a serious safety concern, it said.
There were a number of prisoner deaths related to synthetic opioids, the report found. The Inspector’s office said it had recommended on several occasions that the Prison Service “intensify its efforts to physically prevent contraband from entering the prisons and to detect its presence once on the premises”.
It also highlighted problems with the prisoner complaints system. Despite the increase in overcrowding, prisoner complaints dropped from 89 in 2021 to 55 last year. According to the Inspector’s report, only 50 per cent of surveyed prisoners said they would feel safe making a complaint.
