Prison inspectors say they witnessed groups of women inmates locked outside during a severe storm, with staff refusing to let them seek shelter indoors.
The incident in the Dóchas women’s prison in Dublin during Storm Agnes in September 2023 was an example of the poor treatment of inmates by some staff members, the Inspectorate of Prisons (OIP) said in a newly published report on custodial conditions.
The report is one of four published on Thursday by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons detailing “stark” and “degrading” conditions in the Irish prison system driven by record overcrowding.
The reports relate to inspections carried out in 2023 and 2024. All OIP reports can only be released after being cleared by the Government. Earlier this week Chief Inspector of Prisons Mark Kelly said 20 reports – relating to seven inspections and 13 deaths in custody – have yet to be published.
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In relation to the Dóchas Centre, the OIP found that staff-prisoner relations were “very poor” and that half of all prisoners reported they do not feel safe in custody.
It also reported discrimination against women on several grounds, including age, nationality and religion.
During Storm Agnes, inspectors observed women huddled in doors to avoid the wind and rain while “prison officers ignored their pleas and instead remained upstairs”.
Staff remained “cosseted” in their offices chatting to each other and “none of the officers engaged with the bedraggled women who remained locked out of their houses”.
One prisoner said they were “left like rats outside”.
Prisoners banged on the door and asked to be allowed return to their rooms and get out of the rain. Staff denied these requests and threatened prisoners with punishment if they tried to go into the kitchen or recreation rooms.
“This was entirely inappropriate, and yet completely avoidable mistreatment, which only served to further exacerbate poor staff-prisoner relations in the prison,” the OIP said.
While mentioning some positives, the OIP noted “persistent and systemic failings across the prison estate.”
In Mountjoy men’s prison, during a 2022 inspection, half of the prisoners were on “restricted regimes” meaning they had very little time out of their cells. The continued use of solitary confinement was also identified, despite undertakings in 2017 to end the practice.
A subsequent inspection found that the “living conditions of some prisoners sharing cells in Mountjoy were deplorable and can be considered to amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.”
A 2023 inspection of Cloverhill Prison in Dublin found that more than two-thirds of prisoners lived in cells which did not meet minimum standards for personal living space. A quarter lived in “conditions amounting to degrading treatment”.
A follow-up inspection the next year found the situation had deteriorated further. The vast majority of people were living in conditions which “could be qualified as degrading”, the OIP said.
Mr Kelly said the reports provide “clear and compelling evidence of the consequences of overcrowding in our prisons.
“In too many cases, people are being held in conditions that undermine their dignity, safety and wellbeing.”
The OIP made dozens of recommendations for improvements in relation to Mountjoy, Cork, Cloverhill and the Dóchas Centre. The majority have been accepted by prison management or have already been acted upon.
The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) expressed “grave concern at the OIP’s findings and said prison conditions have only deteriorated further since the inspections were carried out.
It also said the OIP should have the power to publish its own reports. “At present, the timing and selection of reports for publication are controlled by the Minister, which is clearly not consistent with an independent oversight function,” IPRT legal and public affairs manager Niamh McCormack said.
