Round-up: IPRT launches Progress in the Penal System (PIPS) 2025

1st October 2026

IPRT was delighted to launch the eighth edition of Progress in the Penal System (PIPS)on 1 October 2026 at the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission's event space. The PIPS project has been tracking and assessing progress across Ireland’s penal system since its inception, guided by a set of 35 standards informed by international human rights norms and best practice. These standards provide a framework for evaluating prison conditions, regimes, accountability, and reintegration, and reflect IPRT’s commitment to a progressive penal system that protects the rights of all individuals in contact with the justice system.

This year’s report has a particular focus on mental healthcare in Irish prisons. It highlights the experiences of people with acute psychiatric needs who remain in prison because there are insufficient places in the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) and limited alternative pathways to the specialist treatment and care they require. For some, their condition deteriorates while they remain in a setting wholly unsuitable for their needs, despite the efforts of prison staff.

The report also highlights significant barriers to accessing mental healthcare more broadly. People in prison can face lengthy waits to see a psychologist, with some leaving prison before receiving the support they need. At the same time, incidents of self-harm have increased.

These challenges are compounded by unprecedented levels of overcrowding. 2024 saw record levels of overcrowding in Irish prisons, and 2025 repeatedly broke those records. The impact is felt in the everyday experience of people in prison: people sleeping on thin, roll-up mattresses beside unpartitioned toilets; the closure of schools and workshops; cancelled family visits; hundreds of people sharing cells with three others; and limited access to private sanitation. Such conditions undermine dignity and privacy and can significantly restrict opportunities for rehabilitation.

At the launch, IPRT’s report author, Martha Lewis, presented the key findings across the report’s 35 standards, highlighting areas of progress, identifying where improvement is urgently needed and setting out evidence-based recommendations for change.

Our keynote speaker, Prof. Gautam Gulati, brought the report’s focus on mental healthcare into sharp focus, speaking about the realities of providing mental healthcare in prisons and the consequences for people who do not receive the treatment they need. His presentation provided a sobering insight into the human impact of the issues explored in the report.

The launch also featured a video from UISCE (National Advocacy Service for People who use Drugs in Ireland), giving voice to people with lived experience and providing a powerful insight into the realities and challenges faced by people within the penal system.

A wide-ranging panel discussion followed, bringing together Mark Kelly, Chief Inspector of Prisons; Fíona Ní Chinnéide, Deputy Director of the Probation Service; Donna Creaven, Director of Corporate Services, Governance & ICT at the Irish Prison Service; and Dr Brenda Wright, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Executive Clinical Director and Clinical Director of the National Forensic Mental Health Service. The discussion explored key issues raised in PIPS 2025, including mental healthcare, overcrowding and the wider challenges facing the penal system.

IPRT is grateful to all of our speakers, panellists, contributors and stakeholders who shared their expertise and perspectives in the development and launch of this year’s report. We are particularly grateful to the people with lived experience of the prison system whose perspectives have helped inform PIPS 2025.

The report was expertly guided by an Advisory Group, chaired by Ashling Golden, and including Vivian Geiran, Roisin Mulgrew, Paula Kearney, Charles O’Mahony and Keith Adams, who generously contributed their time and expertise.

Thank you also to the IPRT team for the work that went into producing this year’s report, and to our funders, Community Foundation Ireland, whose continued support enables us to shine an essential spotlight on issues within Ireland’s penal system and advocate for progressive penal reform.

Read Progress in the Penal System (PIPS) 2025 here.