7th June 2024
On 7 June 2024, Maeve McTaggart of the Irish Independent reports on the Council of Europe’s 2023 Annual Penal Statistics (SPACE I). Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) Executive Director, Saoirse Brady, responds to the statistics that highlight worrying overcrowding in prisons in Ireland.
Read the article on the Irish Independent website.
The annual penal statistics found evidence of severe overcrowding in prisons in Cyprus, Romania, France, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, and showed Ireland was among a number of administrations “on the edge of overcrowding”.
Ireland had a prison density of 99.4 prisoners for every 100 places available on January 31 last year.
This compared with 84.5 prisoners for every 100 places in Northern Ireland and a Europe-wide median figure of 90.2.
There were 3,381 cells in penal institutions in Ireland, with an average number of 1.3 inmates to each one.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has said “record-breaking levels of people in prison” have led to “deteriorating conditions” in Irish prisons that are negatively affecting the delivery of services.
“While these statistics indicate that we were on the verge of overcrowding at the beginning of 2023, we have now surpassed this with record-breaking levels of people in prison,” said IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady.
“Only last Friday, there were 436 more people in custody than there were beds, with the prison population edging ever closer to a record 5,000, with many of them serving short-term sentences of 12 months or less.
“We are seeing multiple people in cells designed for one person and people sleeping on mattresses on cell floors beside toilets. This huge number of people in the prison estate has resulted in deteriorating conditions and hinders delivery of rehabilitation services such as mental healthcare, addition services and education.”
Ms Brady said the rates of people in pre-trial detention is “unprecedented” and represents one in five people in custody.
The overall European prison population rate grew slightly for the second consecutive year, with 1,036,680 inmates detained across 48 administrations on January 31 last year.
The median prison population across Europe grew by 2.4pc, largely in line with the year before. However, Ireland experienced a “significant increase” in the prison population between January 2022 and January 2023.
In Ireland, the incarceration rate increased by 12pc year-on-year, while between 2005 and 2023 the prison population rate in Ireland increased by 10.8pc.
Violent and drug-related offences represent more than half of the main crimes for which European prisoners are serving sentences.
The average daily spend for the detention of one person amounts to €230 per inmate in Ireland, while the average cost per person in juvenile detention per day was calculated at €1,292.
An overwhelming majority of the prison population across Europe were men. Women accounted for just 5pc of the total number of inmates in Irish prisons, according to the report.
The average age of the Irish prison population is 38, with those aged 26 to 49 accounting for over 70pc.
Just 3.3pc of inmates are over the age of 86, while just over 13pc are aged between 18 and 25.
The report also found Irish prisoners had a higher rate of escape than the European median of 1.9, with a rate of 4.5 per 10,000 inmates in Ireland.
Respect for rights in the penal system with prison as a last resort.