Prison overcrowding crisis has deepened further this year
5th September 2025
In an article on their website, RTE journalist Eleanor Burnhill writes about the prison overcrowding crisis following the launch of the Irish Prison Service 2024 Annual Report. "The Irish Penal Reform Trust said it was deeply concerned at the sharp rise in committals, ongoing overcrowding and the spiralling cost of keeping someone in prison.
"From 2023 to 2024 the cost of keeping somebody in prison for a year has risen by 11% so it nearly costs 100,000 euro to keep a person in prison for a year," its Executive Director Saoirse Brady said.
She said the cost of overseeing someone on probation would be much less.
Related items:
- IPRT Statement on publication of Five Deaths in Custody Reports
- IPRT Statement on Death in Custody Investigation Report Mr. J (Ivan Rosney) Cloverhill Prison 28 September 2020
- RTÉ Investigates: The Psychiatric Care Scandal
- Press Release: IPRT Responds to Follow-Up Inspection reports by Office of the Inspector of Prisons - Cloverhill and Mountjoy Prisons
- Government Action Urged On Prison Conditions - Midlands 103 FM
