Round Up: Progressing inside? Ireland’s prison system in 2018

26th October 2018

IPRT hosted 'Progressing inside? Ireland’s prison system in 2018' on 26 October 2018 in the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Central to the seminar was the launch of the second annual Progress in the Penal System report.

[L-R: Caron McCaffrey, Irish Prison Service; Prof Aislinn O'Donnell, Maynooth University; Patricia Gilheaney, Inspector of Prisons; Vivian Geiran, Probation Service; Deirdre Malone, IPRT; Michelle Martyn, IPRT; Seamus Taylor, Maynooth University. Photo: Derek Speirs]

At the launch, progress on the 35 standards set in PIPS 2017 was examined and three ‘spotlight’ areas were announced: mental health; women; and staff, training and relationships.

Download a PDF of the report here. An interactive online version of the report is available at pips.iprt.ie.

Seamus Taylor, IPRT Chairperson, introduced the PIPS project and the launch was chaired by Aislinn O'Donnell, Professor of Education at Maynooth University. Speakers and panellists (in order of speaking) included:

• Patricia Gilheaney, Inspector of Prisons;
• Deirdre Malone, Executive Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust;
• Michelle Martyn, Senior Research and Policy Manager, Irish Penal Reform Trust;
• Caron McCaffrey, Director of Staff and Corporate Services, Irish Prison Service;
• Vivian Geiran, Director, Probation Service. 

[Michelle Martyn, IPRT. Photo: Derek Speirs]

More photos of the event are available on Flickr. 

Media coverage: 

• Irish Examiner: 'Urgent action needed on mental health in prison'
• Irish Legal News: 'Report on Ireland’s penal system finds ‘disappointing’ progress in key areas'
• Irish Examiner: 'New report highlights mental health and education problems in Irish prisons'
• Newstalk: 'Report on standards in Irish prisons finds little progress in key areas'
• Irish Times: ‘Over half of Mountjoy prisoners in protection regimes due to gang violence’
• TheJournal.ie: ‘More than two-thirds of Irish prisoners on 'restricted' regime kept in cells for 21 hours a day, report finds’
• Irish Independent: ‘Irish prisoners not as engaged in education and voting while assaults on prison officers increase – report’
• Irish Independent: ‘Concern over lack of mental health services for prisoners’
• RTÉ Morning Ireland: 'Report finds lack of adequate mental health services in prisons'
• Report finds lack of adequate mental health services in prisons

This 3-year flagship project is kindly supported by The Community Foundation for Ireland.