Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2018

24th June 2019

Minister for Justice and Equality Mr Charles Flanagan TD has published the Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2018. The report features statistics relating to the profile of the prison population in Ireland.

Below is an outline of some of the key figures contained in the report. For IPRT's full response to the publication, see our press release here.

Key figures:

• The overall daily average number of prisoners in custody was 3,893, compared to 3,680 in 2017 – an increase of 5.8%.
• The average number of female offenders in custody was 165, a 14.6% increase on the 2017 average of 144.
• There were 8,071 committals to prison in 2018, a decrease of 13.1% on the 2017 total of 9,287. However, when fines committals are excluded, there were 4,357 committals under sentence in 2018 – an increase of 581 or 15.4% on 2017. 
• Numbers committed under sentence of less than 3 months increased by 34.3%, from 460 in 2017 to 618 in 2018.
• Numbers committed under sentence of less than 12 months increased by 18%, from 2,639 in 2017 to 3,104 in 2018.
• A total of 6,490 persons accounted for the 8,071 committals. Of those, 5,724 were male and 766 were female. 
• The number of committals to prison as a consequence of the non-payment of a court ordered fine during 2018 decreased by 79.8% on the 2017 figure – from 2,261 in 2017 to 455 in 2018. Of this, 101 were female and 354 were male.
• The total number of persons in custody on 30th November 2018 was 3,962 – a 6% rise on 3,738 at the same time in 2017.

The Irish Prison Service Annual Report 2018 is available here. 

See more: 

• The Irish Times: Jail population on rise with 350 prisoners serving life sentences
• Irish Examiner: Call for numbers being sentenced to prison to be 'urgently reduced'