Progress in the Penal System (PIPS) 2024
2nd December 2025
The 2024 Progress in the Penal System (PIPS) Report provides an independent, evidence-based assessment of how Ireland’s penal system measures up against 35 human-rights-led standards developed by IPRT. Its function is to track year-on-year progress, highlight areas of concern, and set out clear recommendations for reform across policy, practice, and oversight.
This year’s findings reveal a system in crisis. In 2024, Ireland recorded its highest-ever prison population, severe overcrowding, and deteriorating conditions described by oversight bodies as “degrading” and “inhumane.” Access to essential services continued to fall short, and deaths in custody reached a record high. Despite repeated recommendations from the Inspector of Prisons, the CPT, and other agencies, many long-standing issues remain unresolved.
The report calls for urgent political leadership, strengthened accountability, and the expansion of community-based alternatives to custody to ensure that prison is used only as a measure of last resort and that the dignity and rights of all people in detention are protected.
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