Hundreds of inmates sleeping on floors but cost rises to €90,000 per prisoner at jails in Laois and elsewhere

Prison reform campaigners have demanded that the new Goverment act to tackle record breaking prison occupancy at jails in Portlaoise and other parts of the country.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) is calling for the next Programme for Government to focus on a humane and solutions-focused approach to addressing and alleviating what it says are severe pressures on the criminal justice system evident in the Irish Prison Service (IPS) Annual Report 2023 published on December 13 by the Irish Prison Service.

The Trust says hundreds of prisoners are sleeping on floors and thousands sharing cells in unsafe conditions despite the fact the the cost per prisoner rising to €90,000 per inmate annualy.

The Trust says the IPS Annual Report 2023 shows a significant increase of people committed to prison in Ireland in 2023 including an increase in people committed on short sentences of less than 12 months, more women imprisoned and nearly a tripling of the number of  people being imprisoned for non-payment of fines. 

IPRT Executive Director, Saoirse Brady, said her organisation welcomes the publication report and recognises the efforts made to include detailed data on prison education and access to mental health services which helps to provide greater transparency.

She said progress in the continued rollout of in-cell telephones, which enables people in prison custody to maintain essential communication with their families, children and support networks is great to see as it is a vital tool for rehabilitation and community reintegration. 

However, she said negotiations to form the next government are underway must include prisons.

"The incoming government faces an immense task to tackle both chronic and acute problems in prisons and in the criminal justice system more widely to stem the flow of people on short sentences into our prison system and help more people move on from offending. The IPS in its 2023 annual report rightly highlights the ever-increasing pressures it faces with an 11 per cent increase in the daily number of people in custody from the year before.  

"Notably, since the end of 2023 we’ve continued to break new prison overcrowding records - with safe capacity levels breached daily. Any new government needs to shift its thinking to deliver what is needed immediately rather than continuing with the endless refrain of building more prison spaces as if that will be a silver bullet. These spaces are years in the making. Yet officials right across the criminal justice sector have already identified tangible short-term solutions in the Prison Overcrowding Response Group’s final report which sets out practical measures that could quickly take the pressure off and provide the IPS with some much-needed breathing space.  MORE BELOW TABLE FROM NEW REPORT.

"The public has also spoken and appears to be much less punitive than our politicians might think. In public attitudes polling commissioned by IPRT in October 2024, four out of five people stated that it is important for them that the next government prioritises alternatives to imprisonment in response to non-violent offending (81 per cent). Two thirds of people did not think that prison expansion was the solution to address overcrowding, and when asked how they would spend a budget of €10 million to tackle crime, additional prison places ranked fifth out of a list of seven options.  

"We urge the incoming government to engage with those proposals and commit the necessary resources to reduce the number of people in prison overall. Today, the rights and needs of many people in prison remain unmet. This includes hundreds of people sleeping on floors, thousands of people sharing cells, limited access to recreational space and significant waiting lists to access nearly all vital services," she said.

Ms Brady highlighted costs. 

"The cost of an annual prison space rose to almost €90,000 in 2023. Prison is expensive not only in terms of the cost to the taxpayer but also in terms of the human cost. IPRT is concerned at the continued trend of short sentences with a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in 2023 of sentences between three and six months. Looking at the pressure on services right across the prison estate, clearly people entering prison for a matter of days, weeks or months will never reach the top of any waiting list to get the necessary to address any underlying issues they might have,” she said.  

Saoirse Brady added that homeless is emerging as an issue before peole are jailed. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

“IPRT is particularly alarmed by the number of people experiencing homelessness immediately before their imprisonment. On 31 December 2023, almost 800 people (16.4 per cent) reported being of no fixed abode upon committal to prison. This particularly impacts women with 28.6 per cent of the female prison population reporting that they were homeless before committal.  

"Since the commencement of the Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014, we had seen a steady decline in the number of people imprisoned for non-payment of fines.

"However, IPRT is concerned that in the midst of a cost-of-living and homelessness crisis, there is a reversal of that trend with a significant increase in the number of people ending up in prison because of not paying a fine rising from 205 in 2022 to 552 in 2024.  

"IPRT calls on any and all parties and individuals who will shortly enter Programme for Government negotiations to have the political courage to invest in proven solutions and deal with people who offend in a more effective, humane, and less costly manner which ultimately leads to more resilient individuals, safer communities and fewer people in the criminal justice system,” she said.

The trust describes itself as Ireland's leading non-governmental organisation campaigning for the rights of everyone in prison and the progressive reform of Irish penal policy, with prison as a last resort.