Conditions in remand prison potentially 'highly volatile'
The living conditions in the country’s only dedicated jail for people on remand awaiting trial has the potential to “create highly volatile and unsafe situations”, the inspector of prisons has said.This finding was based on an inspection conducted during May 2023, when 441 inmates were housed in Cloverhill Remand Prison, west Dublin, which had a maximum capacity of 433.One prison staff member told the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) that the level of overcrowding there was like a “boiling pot” that everyone was trying to keep a lid on.Since that unannounced inspection, prisoner numbers at Cloverhill have increased to 514 (+17%), as of Thursday, but the maximum capacity has remained unchanged, at 433 spaces.Currently, 67 prisoners are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, including in cells with three other prisoners on bunk beds, all sharing an unpartitioned toilet and where temperatures in the cells were 27C during the OIP 2023 visit in May.The report on Cloverhill was one of four reports published on Thursday — the others being on Mountjoy, Dochas Women’s, and Cork.The OIP submitted them to the minister for justice in March 2025 but they were only published by the Department of Justice on Thursday.Both the chief inspector of prisons, Mark Kelly, and the Irish Penal Reform Trust have urged the introduction of planned legislation which would allow the OIP to publish its own reports.The report on Cloverhill was one of four reports published on Thursday — the others being on Mountjoy, Dochas Women’s, and Cork. File pictureThe OIP report on Cork Prison, based on an inspection in March-April 2023, underlines how the overcrowding crisis has worsened. Then, there were 302 inmates in spaces for a maximum of 296 people.As of this Thursday there were 404 inmates — more than 100 more people — crammed into the same capacity (296) — a rise of 34%.This has meant a 10-fold rise in people sleeping on mattresses on the floor of shared cells — from 10 at the time of inspection to 101 on Thursday.In his foreword to the 2023 inspection report, Mr Kelly said overcrowding in Cork is a “scourge” and people sleeping on mattresses on the floor is a “scandal”.
The report says that while general areas of Cork Prison were clean and in-cell showers is a positive thing, the absence of toilet privacy in shared cells results in degrading conditions.It said reported levels of “low staff morale in the prison was a concern”.The report said that 125 prisoners had heard reports of violence, including physical assaults on inmates by other prisoners and staff.It said 100 prison officers said they had heard reports of violence, with around a quarter saying they heard of sexual assaults by prisoners on prisoners.The OIP said overcrowding in Mountjoy Prison, based on an inspection in November-December 2022, had the potential to exacerbate violence.At the time of the visit, there were around 755 inmates in a prison with maximum capacity for the same, but there were still 90 on mattresses on the floor.As of Thursday, capacity has increased (+10%) to 831, but the number of prisoners has jumped (+47%) to 1,108. It includes 164 on mattresses.In his foreword on Dochas Women’s Prison, Mr Kelly said allegations persist of “inter-prisoner bullying, inappropriate relationships, disrespectful treatment of women by a minority of prison staff”.
